When retired FBI profiler Robert Samson is murdered abord the cruise ship Contessa Voyager, Henry Grave is flown in to investigate. Samson was giving a series of lectures on cold case crimes he thought he could crack, but he got cracked first. With the help of a television actress, a cosmonaut, and a Venezuelan general fighting extradition, Henry draws on skills honed in a Nazi prison camp to track down a killer who might have his own reasons for taking this particular cruise, reasons unrelated to the sumptuous meals, delightful shipboard activities, and exciting ports of call.