In the 17th Father Dowling mystery, the plot deals with adoption and murder. At its center is a woman born out of wedlock. The mother gave her up for adoption and she may have been adopted by the father.

Father Dowling is caught in a dispute over a woman between Austin Rooney and former radio celebrity Jack Gallagher, a situation that becomes further complicated when Jack becomes the prime suspect in the death of another woman

Enlisted by the head of a local family to help her niece relinquish her ambitions for more earthly pursuits, Father Dowling becomes enmeshed in the family's edgy interrelations, which are marked by an unsolved murder.

The discovery of the mangled body of Wallace Flanagan in one of his father's cement mixers sends Father Dowling on an investigation into the secret past of the victim, the heir to a lucrative concrete business, who supposedly had left town more than a decade earlier.

With too many churches and not enough people to fill them, the Archdiocese has to make some cuts, and many of them, including the proposed closing of St. Hilarys, are dangerously close to the bone. Father Dowling rushes to drum up support from church officials and parishioners, including the Deveres, who dont want to see the stained glass windows they donated go anywhere other than the church they were meant for, but they can hardly be of help when...