This first mystery introduces Paul Marston, a Los Angeles-based private investigator whose milieu is corporate crime. When Marston's ex-boss Jack Carlisle, president of Western Shores Corporation, is killed in a suspicious plane crash, the detective begins looking into the business dealings. It seems that someone on the inside has been scheming to take control of the corporation. Marston's investigation brings him into contact with Carlisle's seductive widow and her murderous father, as well as with a crime kingpin and any number of thugs.