Scott Moody has abandoned his fantasy of becoming a private detective and has moved to a Spokane suburb to be a part-time reporter. He continues to drive a cab nights and he is still obsessed by death and madness.
But a sudden murder draws him back into the life he hoped to leave behind. He tracks the mysterious identity of the murder victim to Palm Springs, and the Longevity Institute of the Desert. There he faces a confrontation with mortality that even his worst imaginings could not have predicted.