Marina del Rey attorney Tom McGuire learns that a credit card he never applied for has just been used to buy a new car that winds up in the middle of a 'turf' war outside Santa Barbara, at an idyllic Central California beach called Point Sal. Tom's girlfriend Maria is in danger of being charged with murder and Tom himself is once again betrayed by a former U.S. Attorney's Office co-worker who is in deeper than anyone imagined. Tom's Mafia contacts have retired and opened an Italian Deli/Cooking school called La Cosa Nostra, in which they give cooking classes under the watchful eye of the Federal Organized Crime Strike Force. Tom attends several of these classes. Recipes taught at the cooking school are collected at the back of the book.