What do the Barrios of New York City and Harvard University have in common? Turi Sepulveda soon realizes that it is murder and madness.

Turi knows that it’s a fluke that he’s been accepted as part of the First Year Class at Harvard University. At age thirty, he’s had his share of bad luck as a rodeo bull rider before returning to school to simply get his G.E.D. He never expected to be at Harvard, and he certainly never expected to be accused of murder, despite all of his dark secrets. When Justin Anderson, Turi’s gregarious and popular roommate, finds his social life crashing in on him after he’s paired with the brooding Hispanic, he thinks he’s discovered a new meaning to the label the roommate from Hell. When the murders begin, they look at each other as suspects. Whoever is to blame, the only sure thing is that he is a madman whose insanity is escalating.

When Justin’s admirer—Kumari Sethi, a freshman woman with orthodox Hindu parents—is brutally murdered, Turi becomes the prime suspect as detectives battle to unwind the series of murders. It seems that Alison, Turi’s new girlfriend, is the only one convinced of his innocence. Can she prove it before she too, becomes a victim?