In the summer of 2008, the brutal murder of a devout Mormon widower sends Lieutenant Ryan back into the LDS community of Abbottsville, California. This time his investigation leads him inside the Mormon temple, behind the scenes at an LDS mission home, and into the workings of the Mormon campaign to pass Proposition 8.

When Lieutenant Matt Ryan quits the San Francisco police force to take a job in the sleepy Northern California town of Abbottsville, he finds himself with too much time on his hands. That is, until a Mormon bishop is shot dead at the local LDS church. Energized by "a rush from the old days," Ryan and his partner, Sergeant Stella Romano, quickly determine that the killers are four LDS high school girls. But what on earth could be their motive? The explanation begins five years earlier, when four of Abbottsville Fourth Ward's most prodigious young women set their hearts and minds on attending Brigham Young University.