The beautiful and fey--as they say in the Old Country--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." 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.

Soon the pair are caught up in a Civil War controversy, and an all-too-present-day mystery involving a sophisticated gang of art thieves, corrupt politicians, and international terrorists. But Dermot is cheerfully resigned, for as he well knows, life with Nuala will never be simple. After all, she's like Irish lace--"thin and delicate and pretty, and just a little bit complicated."