 Homicide detective Dave Robicheaux has quit the New Orleans police department, has stopped drinking, and is living in the swamplands with his wife Annie. Dave runs a bait-and-tackle shop in New Iberia. Things are fine until the day Dave and Annie, entirely by happenstance, are on the scene when a drug smuggler s airplane crashes into the bayou, killing a number of people. Donning scuba gear, Dave succeeds in rescuing one of the passengers, an El Salvadoran girl, whom Dave and Annie take home with them. Annie names her Alafair, after Dave s mother. The plane crash brings DEA agent Minos Dautrieve in to investigate. And the drug connection brings Dave bad memories from his life as a cop -- his childhood friend Bubba Rocque is now the leading pharmaceutical drug kingpin in the area, and Bubba has a seductive wife named Claudette. And Dave s old flame Robin Gaddis, a blond stripper, still has feelings for Dave. Dave decides to investigate the airplane crash, but there is someone who wants Dave to keep his nose out of it. Dave is threatened. The warning that he should mind his own business only pushes Dave harder into the case, and one night, Annie is shot dead while Dave is outside chasing intruders. Dave thinks Bubba and Claudette may have had something to do with it, and Dave won t stop until he finds Annie s killer.