A former Juilliard trained musician and devoted family man, Romulus now lives as an outcast in a netherworld on the edge of Manhattan. Haunted by delusions of a powerful adversary, Cornelius Gould Stuyvesant, who he believes charts his every move from the Chrysler building. Ledbetter is drawn out of his insanity to track down the killer of a young drifter, Scotty Gates, whose frozen corpse he discovers hanging in a tree outside his cave-like dwelling. Though the police dismiss the transient Gates' death, Ledbetter is convinced that he was murdered by David Leppenraub, a prominent photographer for whom the boy often modeled. But who is going to believe the rantings of a paranoid schizophrenic living in a cave? Not his daughter Lulu, a young police officer. Not Leppenraub's privileged friends in New York's art world. Alone with his voices and his visions, Romulus must piece together the twisted puzzle, risking his life and the remaining shreds of his sanity to bring justice to another lost soul.