Computer whiz Mat Briscoe is hired to look behind the fairy-tale façade of candidate David Pedersen before he is appointed to an ambassadorial position. As she investigates David and his ex-wife Liz, she meets Liz's best friend Alicia, her husband Chang Zhou and their children Mei Lin, Yulan and Min. Before long she discovers a maze of relationships and a murder committed 30 years ago. Mei Lin, a forensic analyst, has compared her DNA to her parents, Chang and Alicia Zhou. The results shock her and she asks Mat to check the DNA code. Soon Mat is on a quest to find the truth behind the results. Will it reveal family secrets? Will a murderer be identified? Will careers and personal relationships continue or be uprooted and changed forever? As she peels back the layers of falsehoods and lies that shaped the past 30 years, Mat encounters Chinese Triad Societies, bygone cultural values and a subterranean criminal world. With Greg, her love interest, Zorah, her zany artist roommate and Gilbert, a colleague who works for the DEA, Mat continues to delve deep into the past in a search for answers. They expose an astonishing relationship, and reveal decades of resentment, anger and grief. The answers come in a suspense-filled ending when grief and regret explode into violence. They reveal new relationships built on the truth that promise to be more valuable than the old.