Max Fly, Private I, is about a former rodeo clown and roguish heretic discontent small town newspaper reporter moonlighting as a private investigator. After spending time following unfaithful husbands from motel to motel, he stumbles across a homicide case where a woman is found naked and decapitated in a polish flat, a typical four room dwelling, common on the south side of Milwaukee in the 40's and 50's. Max's friend, homicide detective Harry Marshall, said the victim had a body to kill for and apparently someone did.