Myron Bolitar, sports agent, becomes involved in the murder of former tennis star Valerie Simpson after she contacts him when trying to make a comeback. The mystery becomes more involved when Myron's current client, Duane Richwood, is tied to the murder investigation. Trying to prove Duane innocent and find Valerie's killer entangles Myron in a decades old murder involving old money, organized crime, and deep secrets.

Myron Bolitar is an agent representing athletes in many different sports. Myron is currently busy representing Duane Richwood, a rising star in the tennis world. Duane had been a runaway, teaching himself tennis in public courts, rising through the ranks, and had caught the public eye. Duane is competing in the US Open when a former tennis star, Valerie Simpson, is shot and killed while trying to find Myron at the courts.

Myron feels compelled to find out who killed Valerie. Duane is a suspect at first because Valerie had tried to contact him several times in the days before her murder. Suspicion shifts to a stalker, Roger Quincy, who had been following Valerie's career and sending love letters, etc. for years. Myron meets with Roger and discovers that though the man is a bit crazy, he is not the killer the police are searching for either.

Facts are uncovered along the way, including the fact that Valerie had suffered a breakdown six years earlier after her soon-to-be fiancé had been murdered at a party at an exclusive tennis club. Looking into things further, Myron also discovers that Valerie had been sexually abused by her tennis coach, becoming pregnant, and had been forced to get an abortion. The meshing of all these events had led to Valerie's breakdown.

The two murders are tied together, and though Myron is discouraged at every turn, even threatened, he continues to dig. Tennis is the only constant involving all parties, and while trying to tie things together, Myron searches for the reason that Valerie had contacted Duane. At first Myron believes that Duane might also have been present at the tennis club the night that Alexander Cross had been murdered, but the truth is Duane is actually Curtis Yeller, the young man believed to have been killed by the police that evening. Duane's mother had killed her nephew, and Duane had escaped, assuming a new identity and becoming Duane Richwood, tennis star. When Valerie had seen Duane at Myron's office, she realizes that he had been there the night Cross was killed and his mother kills her to keep his secret. Deanna Yeller kills herself in the end, another victim of an event that had happened six years prior.

Myron keeps Duane's secret, feeling that Valerie's mother would not care about the truth if she knew it. The truth saddens him, but the mystery has been solved and Myron does not believe that reopening the Cross murder will serve any purpose. Duane/Curtis had been as much a victim as the rest, a young man whose life was forever changed due to the acts of another.