A heat wave descends on Los Angeles in the summer of 1951 as PI Del Gerritsen investigates former bank employee Frank Conners. Del meets a girl singer in a jazz combo named Amelia Covell. She's young, beautiful--and negro. They fall fro each other and begin sleeping together. A bad cop named Albert Sintra is connected with the subject of Del's investigation. When the bank vice president who hired Del is brutally beaten to death, Del learns of a connection between Conners and Sintra. Del learns of the shooting of an LA City councilman by Sintra from his old friend on the LAPD, Detective Gil...