When the latest victim of the "Beltway Basher" is found in the woods of Montrose Park, Reven Lynch's favorite jogging spot, her crime-loving antenna goes up. The murder makes Reven and her best friend, Violet Bolton, reconsider their running routine, but it also introduces her to the smooth, enigmatic Detective Gunner.

Gunner is convinced the killer is a society big shot hiding in plain sight, but is out of his element in Reven's world of embassy dinners and symphony balls. When Reven agrees to feed Gunner the inside information he needs, throwing herself into her role as the detective's "ersatz Mata Hari," she discovers that the prominent skirt-chasing businessman for whom she's fallen tops Gunner's shortlist of suspects.

During the course of the investigation, the social world will unravel, an old friendship will be put to the test, scandalous secrets will be unleashed, and Reven will discover that nothing old or new, in high culture or low life, is what it appears.