After fallout from a story, reporter Melanie goes home to Cherry Springs for a break. When a friend disappears, she uses her skills to get to the truth, to the local detective's dismay.

One afternoon Dan is brutally jumped and accosted by a Gang in his neighborhood. Angel, the leader of Dans crew demands that he murder his punisher and thus earn his official "membership" into the crew: a teardrop tattoo under his eye.