Jake Duluth (blood brother to Peter) had never convalesced from the inexplicable suicide of his wife, and allowed it to corrode his relationship with Bill, their son. With the murder of the perverse, preposterous Ronnie, Jake's oldest friend, Bill is believed by all to have been the killer (he had fallen in love with Ronnie's child bride), but Jake, in an upsurge of blind faith, persuades Peter of his innocence and Peter bluffs a confession and solution... Refined torment.