When private eye V.I. Warshawski is called out to a derelict drug house in a rural town just south of Chicago, she discovers something she wasn't expecting: the mutilated corpse of a man, dumped in a cornfield.The deceased is the ex-lover of addict Judy Binder; an acquaintance of V.I.'s old friend, Lotty Herschel. Both Judy and her son Martin have disappeared without a trace, and it's up to V.I. to find out why.