They were the Sheridan men, ruled by passion, betrayed by love, heirs to a legacy of violence and forbidden desire. Gus, Boston's top homicide cop: he knew equally well the backroom politics of City Hall and the private passions of the very rich, a man haunted by the wanton courage and perilous obsessions he inherited from his father...Conn, the patriarch, a lawless cop who spawned a circle of vengeance and betrayal that would span half a century...and Chris, Gus's beloved son, a Harvard lawyer and criminologist, fated to risk everything to break the chain of obsession and rage... Three generations linked by crime and punishment—cops and heroes, fathers, sons, and lovers united at last by revelations that could bring a family to its knees...