The Spinner is dead, bashed on the head and left to rot in a river. One of his three blackmail victims must have been the killer - Scudder is determined to nail them.

Henry Prager has paid enough for the sins of his daughter, and begs Scudder not to destroy his shaky business or the fragile girl's reformed life. Beverly Etheridge cheerfully admitted all the sex acts Scudder had seen in the photos and she promises to show him a few more. Theodore Huysendahl offers Scudder enough money to choke even a blackmailer's greed, a proposition no sane man would turn down.

Scudder's code of honour demands that one of them will pay...