Nuala Anne McGrail uses her psychic abilities to help solve mysteries. But even she will admit with a smile that she couldn't do it without Dermot Michael Coyne, her devoted admirer and self-proclaimed "spear carrier." Now both living in Chicago, their unique courtship is once again interrupted by one of Nuala's "spells." For on a quiet street on the South Shore, she is overwhelmed by the screaming of thousands of dying men--Confederate soldiers held as prisoners of war.