Eight years after his first exciting success as an amateur sleuth, Owen Delaney finds himself married with kids, content with his professorial job at a university in Philadelphia, but a little bored with his life. All this changes when one of his students is murdered in an apparent drive-by shooting in the colorful and intriguing Hispanic neighborhood of Fairhill. Piecing together clues from the student's diary, Owen pursues a mysterious killer whose life intersected with the dead student's for a few brief minutes years before. Although his "investigation" is hindered by skeptical police and a wife who wants no part of this detective business, Owen cannot resist the pull of the chase and soon finds his own life in danger. Once again saving himself with wits and nerve, Owen then engineers a surprising twist that impresses his police contacts and pulls his wife into his crime solving enterprise.