On the first day of Royal Ascot, the world's most famous horseracing meet, the crowd rejoices in a string of winning favorites. Ned Talbot has worked all his life as a bookmaker-taking over the family business from his grandfather-so he knows not to expect any sympathy from the punters as they count their winnings, and he his losses. He's seen the ups and downs before, but as the big gambling conglomerates muscle in on small concerns like his, Ned wonders if it's worth it anymore. When a gray-haired man steps forward from the crowd claiming to be his father, Ned's life is thrown into far deeper turmoil. He'd been told that both his parents had died in a car crash when he was a baby. Barely an hour later, his newly found father is fatally stabbed by an unknown assailant in the Ascot parking lot. Blood oozing from his abdomen, his father warns Ned to "be very careful." But of whom? Of what? Ned finds himself in a race to solve his father's riddles, a race where coming second could cost him more than even money: it could cost him his life.