Kevin Barlow will die on schedule and according to regulations. Harry Parlington, director of the Cantos execution facility, intends to make sure of it. However Barlow chooses to go, be it calmly or fighting violently to the end, Parlington feels confident that he and his team can deal with the situation. When Barlow makes a baffling and unusual final request, a strange duel ensues between the condemned man and the prison director. In this struggle there can be no winner or loser, only two men faced with doubts and difficult choices to make. The iron grip Parlington usually maintains on the execution procedure begins to slip as the final hours become a maze of manners of dying.—Jeremy Peter Allen