It's a late summer Sunday in downtown New York City, and Artie Cohen is getting married. Watching the sun rising over the East River, he's content.

A message comes in from an old friend, Sid McKay, asking Artie to come out to Red Hook in Brooklyn. It's his wedding day, but Artie owes Sid, so he goes.

On arriving he finds a dead man spreadeagled in the water off the old docks. When Sid eventually shows up, he's scared, edgy and evasive, Artie suspects he's holding something back.

Even at his own wedding party, later that day, Artie can't stop thinking about Sid. Why has the death of a vagrant spooked him so much? It's not his case, but the more he digs, the more it drags him in, implicating - and threatening - his closest friends...