After a few free drinks, most reference librarians will admit to thinking that catalogers are boring and odd. They're half right. Catalogers are definitely odd, but Janet McKenzie wouldn't call them, or herself, boring.
So when she trips over the body of a reference librarian late one night after work, no one seems to care. That is, until Janet has to identify the mutilated remains of her friend, Valerie - a transgendered student and library aid. Convinced the murderer is Valerie's lover, Janet explores the gay sub-culture in the small college town of Linwood, Nebraska. In the end, Janet finds out that aren't that quiet when a murderer is running loose in the backlog.