On a chilly November morning at the University of Georgia, a fraternity brother steps off a busy crosswalk and is struck dead by an oncoming car. More than a dozen witnesses all agree on two things: the driver looked identical to the victim, and he was smiling. Detective Marlitt Kaplan is first on the scene. An Athens native and the daughter of a UGA professor, she knows all its shameful histories. When threats against her escalate, and some long-buried secrets threaten to come to the surface, Marlitt can't help questioning whether the corruption in Athens has run off campus and into the force and how far these brotherhoods will go to protect their own.