Jake Samson is an ex-Chicago cop, now living in Northern California, living the laid back life, until a call from an old friend has him trying his hand at being a private eye. It all starts when a radical professor's wife is found dead in Berkeley. The police pick up the usual leads; jealousy, dirty politics, and an estate worth killing for, but nothing more. Since the professor is the dead woman's spouse, he is the primary suspect, but he swears he didn't do it. Samson doesn't like the guy much, but a ten thousand dollar fee, plus expenses, has him taking on the case. With his sidekick Rosie, and her justice dispensing two-by-four, Samson turns on the heat. A twisted trail leads through the Bay Area's bizarre cultural labyrinth; from pop meditation ashrams to neo-Nazi rallies, to the startling, but all too human truth.