When a freak accident kills a driver on the remote roads outside Duluth, Jonathan Stride is disturbed to discover that the victim appears to be a "ghost", with a false identity and no evidence to suggest who he really was. What's worse, the man has a gun locked in the trunk - and it has recently been fired.
The next day Stride learns that a Duluth college student has vanished and worries that the two incidents are related. But what would have put an ordinary young woman in the crosshairs of a man who has all the hallmarks of an assassin for hire?
Stride's investigation of the girl's disappearance leads him onto the set of a film crew in Duluth, where a movie based on a case from his own past is being made. The actor playing Stride is Hollywood royalty, an award-winning icon who has charmed his way to the top of the box office.
But Stride soon hears whispers that his alter ego has a dark side and, in trying to expose the truth, discovers that he has made a powerful enemy who will stop at nothing to protect his reputation.