Richie Grimaldi is a small-time gigolo who preys on unhappily married women. When his latest conquest disappears during the night from a no-tell motel by the beaches near Narragansett, Grimaldi is convinced someone has abducted her. He reaches out to West Warwick Private Investigator Hugh Doherty for help in finding the missing woman. Although Doherty is reluctant to take the case because he is put off by Grimaldi's treatment of women, he does so hoping he can find the missing girl before something awful happens to her. While he is investigating the circumstances the local police are focusing their suspicions on his client. At the same time Doherty is also working on a case involving a World War II veteran like himself who is being cheated by some card sharks at a VFW post in Providence and made to perform illegal activities to pay off his gambling debts to them. When two seemingly unrelated murders occur Doherty suspects there is a connection between them and his two cases. This is the fourth in a series of Doherty mysteries that take place in Rhode Island in the late 1950s and early 1960s.