Jack Liffey's former mistress reappears to plead for the P.I.'s help finding her missing niece. The hunt leads Liffey to Monterey Park, where he dives into an undercurrent of racial tension that puts the peace of the small suburb in jeopardy. Meanwhile, a fire burns in the hills above Los Angeles, offering a sinister reminder that few events in life are coincidental. But Liffey's sudden troubles with racist gangs, teenage revolutionaries, and South African nutjobs are dwarfed by the threat his old mistress poses to his relationships with his new girlfriend and his recently reconciled lesbian daughter. What's a hard-boiled dick to do?