Milwaukee 1932, the Great Depression going full blast, repeal of Prohibition just around the corner, Al Capone in the federal pen, the private investigation business shifting from labour-management relations to the more domestic kind. Hicks McTaggart, private eye, thinks he’s found job security until he gets sent out on what should be a routine case, locating the heiress of a Wisconsin cheese fortune who’s taken a mind to go wandering. Before he knows it, he finds himself on a liner, eventually ending up in Hungary where there’s no shoreline, a language from some other planet, & enough pastry to see any cop well into retirement – & of course no sign of the heiress he’s supposed to be chasing. By the time Hicks catches up with her he will find himself also entangled with Nazis, Soviet agents, British counterspies, swing musicians, practitioners of the paranormal, & the troubles that come with each of them.