Less than a week before Christmas, Columbus Detective Reed Mattox and his K-9 partner receive a call from dispatch.
The body of a young woman has been found floating in the Olentangy River, her teeth forcibly removed, her fingerprints obliterated, any chance at a positive identification residing only within the string of inexplicable tattoos inked across the bottom of her feet.
Across town, an organization has taken hold in the North End, capitalizing on the recent gentrification in the area by introducing an entirely new and exotic service that the people of Central Ohio have never seen before. Preying on a captive market, they have developed a small empire in just a short amount of time, bringing with it far more than anybody could have foreseen.
Reed is forced to uncover how these things might all tie together, working far beyond the usual scope of his jurisdiction, perhaps even much further than he’s ever gone before…