Under the surface of small town Texas are dark undercurrents of suffering and depravity: alcoholism, domestic violence, child abuse, arson, animal mutilations -- and brutal, obscene murder. Social worker Sally Hopkins knows that it's only a matter of time before the perpetrator becomes a sexual predator, a serial killer with a twisted mind. Sally's burnt out on Houston's big city crime, just shy of forty, and she doesn't want to be involved -- but...