Early in the dark Indianapolis morning, Frank Behr's friend and mentor is murdered-with no motive and no trace of evidence left behind. Behr, a quiet, mountainous former cop, thirsts for answers and retaliation. But before he can make headway in the dead-end-case, an exclusive private investigation firm approaches him with a delicate proposition: two of its detectives have gone missing, and they want Behr to find out what happened to them. Prodded to take the case by his old boss-an Indianapolis police captain who holds the strings to Frank's possible return to the force-Behr accepts.

The search for the missing detectives takes Behr into the recesses of Indianapolis's underworld, a place rife with brutality and vice-and a stark contrast to the city's gentile public image. As Behr calls on old street contacts and his hard-boiled investigative skills, he is led deeper into a twisted society of crime and violence and an unknown landscape of "pea-shake" houses-low rent, transient gambling rings staged in condemned buildings around the city. Behr uncovers an unexpected connection to the missing detectives, and, in the process, he is forced to confront an ominous, deadly new breed of crime family.