A successful businessman hires an out-of-town bodyguard to protect his wife. Several near-fatal accidents send her into the arms of police detective Steve Caralla and his partner Meyer.
Detectives Meyer and Carella investigate a savage murder, gang warfare suddenly erupts in the city, the drug business heats up, and the 87th Precinct finds itself tense and taxed.
McBain's cops have seen too much crime and madness as they begin a new case-The stabbing of a priest in his garden with a red cult sign found painted on the gate.
The hanging death of a nondescript old man in a shabby apartment in the 87th Precinct leads detectives Carella, Meyer, Brown, and Weeks to the discovery of an upcoming musical with ties to a mysterious drug, and a killer.