Over the course of the novel, Danny Upshaw becomes increasingly obsessed with the murder case - characterized by violent and sexual mutilations of male victims' corpses post-mortem - and begins to confront his own latent homosexuality in the process. He closes in on the killer, as the murders begin to connect to the UAES, the leftist Hollywood organization being investigated, particularly an actor named Reynolds Loftis, who matches the description of the suspected killer. Upshaw's investigation, however, is cut tragically short when a feud between County and City police leads to him being pegged for the killing of a corrupt LAPD detective who questioned his sexuality. Fearing the outcome of this investigation, Upshaw takes his own life with the murder spree still unsolved.