LAPD homicide detective Jessie Drake is astonished when her closest high school confidant, who hasn’t been in touch for almost two years, shows up at her door with an alarming tale of being harassed by an unseen stalker. The friend is now "Dr. Renee," a popular radio talk show psychologist who doles out quick-fix no-nonsense advice to troubled callers on everything from lackluster marriages to steamy illicit affairs. Now Renee is desperately frightened and convinced that Jessie can help her.

Skeptical, and with little to go on, Jessie agrees to investigate— just as a favor. But her interest quickly turns professional when Renee’s six-year-old daughter Molly is kidnapped and the child’s nanny murdered. Renee and her estranged husband Barry, already in a fierce battle over custody, trade angry charges of blame and suspicion while Jessie tracks a bizarre series of events that began a few weeks earlier when a battered wife phoned Dr. Renee for help. Now the woman’s crazed husband blames the radio therapist for handing out advice that his ruined his marriage, and—on the air for all to hear—he threatens revenge.

With a child as a pawn, a killer holds all the cards—and he’s chosen Jessie to be the LAPD’s top player. As the hours tick by, he uses the radio talk show to up the ante, sending shock waves of fear and disbelief throughout the city. And under the hot glare of media scrutiny, Jessie works feverishly against the clock to beat him at his own game—because she knows that a man who has killed and has nothing to lose will stop at nothing to satisfy his need for vengeance.