Puzzling facts surround the death of a statistics professor who was a rarity on campus - a conservative. He had been working on a book that detailed examples of political correctness gone amok at Bickley College, the small Southern college where he worked. Because the book is expected to contain facts that the college does not want parents of prospective students to read, the college is happy to grease the wheels that would make the would-be book go away. Paul Heller is a no-nonsense private investigator and former cop who, many years earlier, had taken classes from the professor. More recently, the two had become good friends. Peculiar circumstances surrounding the professor's death prompt Heller to investigate, which brings him in contact with college faculty and administrators, people who work at the town's paper mill, the professor's new girlfriend, the professor's brother, and others. In the process, the PI encounters the attitudes and values of the people about whom the professor had been writing. Also in the process, Heller is struck by a key difference between the professors of today and the professors who taught him. The professors who taught him stuck to their subjects and gave no hints as to their politics. Could any of the strong personalities he meets have ordered a hit?