R F Wilson's popular detective Rick Ryder, a one-armed attorney, recovereing alcoholic, and all-around lovable jerk, embarks on yet another mystery quest when he's asked to discover how and why a famous professor died -- and what happened to the million dollars stashed in his car. Professor Marc Revis, an advocate for marijuana legalization, was headed to Asheville, North Carolina to address a national conference on the subject, but instead he's found dead in Ryder's friend Queenie Weaver's barn. Revis's ex-wife, his estranged son, a rival professor, even a local small-time, small-town mobster, are among the suspects Rick and Kathy -- his partner and wife -- investigate on their way to finding the truth.