Two hours past midnight, nice young man Wayne Milton walks out from his second-shift office and into unplanned, unwanted combat with a fevered stranger. Moments later this stranger lies dying, his face to the asphalt -- and hanging from Wayne's hand is a pistol, smoke wreathing its steel muzzle. Nerves scrambled and heart knocking, Wayne stares at the body sprawled before him. He cannot move, cannot comprehend. Then the shriek of an approaching siren pierces his trance, and on instinct he flees into shadow. The cold October night closes around him. What fortune will the new day bring? As Wayne skulks westward in fear and shame, ducking the law while striving to maintain sanity, civility, and basic hygiene, the ricochet from his violent encounter rattles the lives of those he loves, those he doesn't much mind, and those he'd do well to avoid...