Edward Fosca is a murderer. Mariana has no doubt. But Fosca is elusive, untouchable. A handsome and charismatic professor of Greek tragedy at Cambridge University, Fosca is adored by both faculty and students, especially members of the secretive group "The Virgins". Mariana Andros is a brilliant but complex and contradictory group therapist. Her attention is drawn to the "Virgins" when the body of one of them, a friend of Mariana's niece Zoe, is found in Cambridge. Mariana once studied at the same university. She immediately realizes that the idyllic beauty of the spires and the ancient traditions hide something sinister. She is convinced that the murderer is Edward Fosca, although the latter has a solid alibi. But why would the professor target a student? And why does he keep returning to the rituals of the virgin Persephone and the theme of journeys to the Underworld? After discovering yet another body, Mariana's obsession with proving Fosca's guilt becomes uncontrollable, threatening to destroy both her reputation and her closest relationships. Mariana is determined to stop the murderer at all costs, even at the cost of her own life.
