When Trudi Olson arrives to staff the art league's gallery in a small Texas gulf coast city, she finds a dead man on the gallery's mezzanine. Homicide detective Val Forster and her partner initially think that finding the killer will be relatively easy. After all, there are not many people who know both the gallery's alarm code and have access to a key. But the detectives shortly find out that it is not so simple. Their investigation takes them into the unfamiliar worlds of artists, art forgery, false identities, and eco-evangelism. With assistance from Trudi and other art league members, they develop a scenario that helps them understand why the deceased was in the gallery in the middle of the night and his activities while he was there. But they need to find the answers to three important questions: Who was responsible for the man's death? Why did he kill him? And how did that person leave the gallery without setting off the alarm?