The first case is history. That's the famous trial of Sacco and Vanzetti, Boston's pair of immigrant anarchists executed for a murder many still say they never committed. The second case makes history -- at least for Doc Adams. John Robinson, Doc's handsome, generous friend, has been found dead, his body curiously unmarked. And two of the killer's fingers are discovered lodged in the jaws of Robinson's similarly dispatched guard dog. Between the seemingly unrelated cases, generations apart, lies a critical and hazardous link that will introduce Doc to the best-kept scandals of Boston's first families and to the Mafia strongholds of the colorful North End.