"When beautiful, wealthy Yukiko and low-born artist Noriyoshi are found drowned together in a shinju, or ritual double suicide, everyone believes the culprit was forbidden love. Everyone but newly appointed yoriki Sano Ichiro.Despite the official verdict and warnings from his superiors, the shogun's Most Honorable Investigator of Events, Situations, and People suspects the deaths weren't just a tragedy -- they were murder. Risking his family's good...

In Japan, March 1700, the shogun sends orders to Sano Ichiro, the samurai detective who has risen to power in the shogun's court, to investigate a mysterious skeleton; Sano and his wife have just three days to find out long-buried secrets that might involve Sano's own mother and a burning kimono.

When the shogun is forced to claim an illegitimate son as his heir after the death of his only child, Sano Ichiro, believing the malevolent youth to be part of a plot to seize power, risks the safety and honor of his family to uncover the truth.