In January, New York City inaugurates its first female mayor. In April, her son disappears.

Called in by the mayor's chief aide--a former girlfriend of private investigator Bill Smith's--to find the missing fifteen-year-old, Bill and his partner, Lydia Chin, are told the boy has run away. Neither the press nor the NYPD know that he's missing, and the mayor wants him back before a headstrong child turns into a political catastrophe. But as Bill and Lydia investigate, they turn up more questions than answers.

Why did the boy leave? Who else is searching for him, and why? What is his twin sister hiding?

Then a teen is found dead and another is hit by gunfire. Are these tragedies related to each other, and to the mayor's missing son?

In a desperate attempt to find the answer to the boy's disappearance before it's too late, Bill and Lydia turn to the only contacts they think will be able to help: the neighborhood leaders who are the real 'mayors' of New York.