The smoking remains of a car belonging to sheriff Ike Schwartz are found just outside Picketsville, Virginia. Since leaving the CIA, the sheriff has made many enemies at home and abroad. Is this a cop killing, or domestic terrorism? While the Picketsville sheriff's department mounts a manhunt for the responsible party, Ike's old CIA colleague, Charlie Garland, who has been monitoring Ike's life, joins the hunt.

"On the same evening that a body is found in Picketsville's urgent care clinic, a mysterious break-in occurs at the house of one of Callend University's faculty. Sheriff Ike Schwartz thinks both events might be connected to an icon, The Virgin of Tenderness, in the faculty member's possession. Is the victim somehow connected to the university? And why did he enter the country under an assumed name? Then, what appears to be outdated spycraft--a microdot--is...