Its main protagonists are Gus Saenz and Jerome Lucero, Jesuit priests who also perform forensic work.

While dealing with the systematic corruption of the government, church and the elite, the two priests delve into criminal profiling, crime scene investigation and forensic analysis to solve the killings, and eventually, find the murderer.

Gus and Jerome, together with their ally reporter Joanna Bonifacio, take matters into their own hands and solve the mystery of the serial killings in Payatas.

A semi-sequel to the novel was released in 2013 as a short story in the Manila Noir anthology edited by Jessica Hagedorn.

It was entitled Comforter of the Afflicted and focused on a case handled solely by Gus Saenz with almost none of the other original characters from the book making a return.