In the fall of 1947, an impressionable young scholar finds herself seduced by the spirit of a Hollywood pulp detective…. This serpentine saga opens at a New England women's college, where the ever-playful Betty escapes a meddlesome narrator by slipping her friend a mickey and assuming her identity. Undaunted, the plucky storyteller adopts said friend-the literarily precocious Willie-and accompanies her to L.A. Meanwhile, the pulp-inflected ghost of Skip Ryker-a recently atomized Hollywood detective-tries in vain to solve his untimely demise. What he needs, it quickly becomes apparent, is a willing instrument. The ensuing collision of these disparate narratives sparks a battle royal for control of Willie's suggestible psyche-and subsequently, movie rights to the book.