Beginning with a crime scene compromised by police officers trained not to be too aggressive, Thomas describes the mistakes made during those crucial early hours, detailing where the subsequent investigation led and where it went wrong.

Thomas chased leads from a pedophile's jail cell to the salons of wealthy estates, talked to hundreds of witnesses, and conducted extraordinary interviews with the Ramseys. His inside story answers a wide range of important questions: Why were the Ramseys handled with kid gloves and never asked by law enforcement to take lie detector tests? Why were certain search warrants not authorized and why was some evidence ignored? Why were detectives told to stay away from some witnesses? Why was an undercover operation canceled for political reasons? Why did the district attorney work with tabloid journalists while his office shared sensitive evidence and detailed police reports with the Ramseys?

Thomas has been described as "the detective who knew this case better than anyone." He resigned after exposing the blunders that crippled the investigation and helped force the governor to launch a grand jury. Finally, Thomas tells how the prosecutors kept the detectives who knew the evidence best away from the grand jury, which issued neither an indictment nor a report.