Patricia Pollard is wealthy, beautiful, and needs Sam McCloud's help. Mrs. Pollard is upset by the indiscretions of her preacher husband, Peter Pollard; and to make matters worse, her best friend's husband, the corporate financial officer of Pollard's religious empire, has disappeared. As a private investigator in the North-Central California City of Modesto, McCloud struggles to keep his relationship with the gorgeous Mrs. Pollard on a professional level.

"Mac" enlists his cousin, Swede Anderson, the owner of the Downtown Athletic Club, to assist in the investigation. The twists and turns extend into Hawaii, Mexico, and the Sierra Nevada Mountains, with treachery everywhere.

As Mac and Swede follow a confusing trail of clues in Norman Adkins's disappearance, they discover a network of slavery, drugs, and murder and attempts to discourage both of them in the pursuit of the truth. As it turns out, the truth can be stranger than fiction.