After completing a security job in London, Mick Malone and his partner, Jock McDuff are anxious to get back to Scotland for a little rest and relaxation. But Mick's plans are diverted, when he gets a ransom note. Someone has kidnapped Dr. Finfrock, an orange tabby cat that an ex- roommate left with Mick when she moved out. The kidnapper has instructed Mick to meet him at the Ferry Building in San Francisco if he wants to see the cat alive. Flying to San Francisco, Mick finds the kidnapper and is pulled into a much deeper plot, one that skirts the darker side of prescription drug trials. When Mick's client disappears at the same time as dead bodies start turning up, he calls on his partner to join him in the city by the bay. This fourth Mick Malone mystery takes Jock and Mick from London to San Francisco to Latin America on their search for their missing client and for the murderers that are on the loose. What they find out along the way about the origin of new drugs is disturbing. And Dr. Finfrock? Well, it seems he has an adventure of his own in store.