Amos Walker, a Detroit detective, is a model of a Hammett-Chandler descendent - a big man, very macho, who talks tough and is tough. He hates hypocrisy, phonies and crooks. In this adventure, Amos has two cases. An old Polish woman hires him to find her missing grandson and a Russian writer claims to need protection from the KGB. Are the cases related? This intricate plot is packed with violence and leads Walker into Detroit's ethnic neighborhoods.