Ever since Chicago ex-cop Kubiak opted for early retirement from a quiet career in Latent Prints, he has been finding himself reluctantly embroiled in mysteries that inevitably bring him back to where he started: into confrontation with the same Chicago Police Department of which he was once a member. This time, third-rate burglar Baumgarten wants to hire Kubiak to investigate a suspicious suicide that occurred upstate, which Baumgarten claims was actually a homicide committed by members of the Lake County Sheriff's Department. Kubiak is determined not become involved until, hours later, Baumgarten turns up bludgeoned to death in the passenger seat of a truck belonging to Kubiak's son-in-law.
Kubiak tries to uncover the connection between the two only to discover that the young man has gone into hiding ... and he has taken Kubiak's daughter with him.
Determined to find his daughter and clear his son-in-law's name, he must find the couple before the police do.