After an alcoholic blackout, and down on his luck, Chandler is helped out of his doldrums by Rico Amici, owner of the North Broadway Café in downtown Los Angeles. Working as a busboy and short-order cook, Chandler falls in love with Giovanna Barbaro, a waitress and part-time prostitute. Conflicted, Chandler also remains in love with his wife Cissy, a woman nineteen years his senior. When the unhappily pregnant Giovanna is murdered, the Amici family expects an ill-prepared Chandler to solve the murder and make la vendetta.
The action of the novel requires a trip through the subterranean levels of a Los Angeles populated by con artists, manipulators, prostitutes, fading movie actresses, and abortionists. With the help of Sam Jacobs, a retired L.A.P.D. detective, Chandler solves the crime. The story ends in a deadly confrontation with Giovanna’s murderer
