Raphael LaFontaine's parents were hoodoo practitioners who sold potions, infusions, vapors, and spells. While she was pregnant with him Rafael's mother ingested the herbs and roots that were her and her husband's stock and trade.

From early childhood Raphael was afflicted with strange visions and fever dreams and found that he was often able to see into other people's emotions and personalities. Both a curse and a gift, these talents have served Rafe well, first as a Baltimore police officer then as private detective. But sometimes Rafael wonders if he is not a freak masquerading as a normal person.

A frayed-at-the-edges lawyer asks Rafe to help his client with a simple matter, a hard to get rid of ex-boyfriend who also happens to be a Baltimore cop, but Rafael soon finds out that nothing is what it had seemed and it isn't long before Rafe finds himself deeply entangled in a confusing web of lies and murder.