1938. One hot August day a turncoat Chicago accountant, in charge of maintaining twin sets of books and financial records capable of bringing down the Mafia from coast to coast, stumbles into Matt Jagger's Santa Barbara office. The well-dressed stranger sits down facing Matt, a knife buried to the hilt in his back. The man slumps forward and dies...without saying a word. One thousand dollars in bloody hundred dollar bills flutters from the corpse's hand, possible evidence of his murder, but there is no one else nearby to claim it. Matt decides the money must be his intended fee. Even though no actual agreement has been reached, the private detective elects to take a chance on his new "client." It's been a slow month. Jagger's decision soon finds him at odds with police friends and organized crime. Within hours he's wired to old slot machines and tossed in the Santa Barbara Channel to drown. But that's just for starters. His next stop is a slab in the county morgue. Members of murder for hire, the New York, Chicago and Los Angeles Mafia, in league with the corrupt Los Angeles political bosses from the mayor and police chief on down, are desperate to recover and destroy the evidence the dead man has hidden. Jagger also needs to die to cover any up possible loose ends. And it's not long before the consequences of the private detective's efforts to uncover what his benefactor was up to spread and they start costing his closest friends dearly. It appears only death with end up the winner