A series of anonymous threats intended for others puts a man, and everyone he loves, in the path of a relentless killer. Daniel Brasher has always been something of a disappointment to his old-money aristocratic San Francisco mother. Daniel left his high-paying job as a money manager to marry his community organizer wife and work at a job he loves, leading group counseling sessions with recently paroled ex-cons. Now he is ready to move on and start a private practice. But before he leaves, he finds an envelope in his department mailbox, one intended for someone else that was placed in his slot by accident. Inside it is an unsigned piece of paper, a note that says only "admit what you've done or you will bleed for it. you have 'til november 15 at midnite." The deadline has already passed and the person to whom the envelope was addressed was brutally murdered. But this first warning is only the beginning. Soon, Daniel finds more warnings in his office mail, to people that the police cannot track down, and to victims that cannot be saved. Daniel's efforts, however, have alerted the killer to his involvement and next he gets a threat of his own. Now, with the clock ticking, Daniel, with no clue what he is supposed to have done or to what action he must confess, must somehow appease, or outwit, a seemingly unstoppable killer.