The Murder Of A Newly Appointed City Council Member In The Early 1980S Shatters The First Of Many Illusions In Avalon, A City Located More East Than West And Slightly South Of North, Where The Past Connives With The Present To Keep Things In The Family'. As The Greater Avalon Police Department'S Central Crime Squad'S Investigation Moves Through, And Sometimes Cuts Across, Tangled Webs Of Familial Relationships They Find A Number Of People And Things Are Not Quite, And Never Were, What They Seemedincluding The Victim, Local Biotech Firm, Twenty-Year Old Unsolved Jack-The Ripper Cases, And The Avalon Police Department Itself. While The Squad Evaluates, Tests, And Redefines Their Own Relationships, Values, Loyalties And Self-Images, The Only Sure Things Are Over-Work, Out-Dated Equipment, And Paperwork Meanwhile, Like All The Citizens Of Avalon, They Have Lives To Live, And Personal Crises To Either Surmount Or Just Survive--While They Grasp For Reality Amidst The Mounting Shards Of Shattered Illusions.