Nate Riegert had a lot going for him: good looks, a promising arm, unreal stats on the football field, and a potential shot at playing quarterback in the NFL. And then someone crushed his skull with an iron plate in the weight room at UW-Rockland. Nate's on-again-off-again girlfriend is accused of the grisly crime. Sarah Novak has no viable alibi, and the case seems open-and-shut.

Sarah's father seeks out an acquaintance from his past to help prove his daughter's innocence, but his difficult personal history with Duff might be too much for the surly detective to simply and forget. Not to mention, this murder is located painfully close to the one case that continues to haunt Duff.

Abe and Duff head north to Wisconsin to see if they can determine who really killed Nate Riegert and end up getting tangled in a strange web of gambling, college athletics, teenage hormones, and too many suspects. For two guys who could not throw a decent forward pass between them, the clock is ticking, they're out of timeouts, and they need a Hail Mary to solve this case.