San Diego's Chief of Homicide warned Max Thursday, hard-fisted private eye, to keep out of the investigation of the murder of a beautiful redheaded divorcee. But Thursday's reporter girl-friend begged him to tackle the case, confessing a secret love affair with Bliss Weaver, the victim's estranged husband, whom the police accused of the killing. Then Weaver escaped from jail and a second and third strangling occurred.

Torn between his desire to see his rival out of the way and his conviction that Bliss was innocent, Max Thursday began a desperate chase for the murderer. From swank La Jolla to a isolated lighthouse, from a perfumed beauty salon to a deserted railroad tool shed, the trail leads finally to the ashes of a city dump, where Max Thursady solves his own dilemma and the brutal crimes in a spine-tingling showdown.