Diminutive Minneapolis private investigator Sean NMI Sean is bright, charming and physical when necessary. He is impatient with oppressive regulation, has a taste for both elegance and mundane pleasures, and a cautious willingness to be a white knight. He is proficient in self-defense and capable with several weapons which he’s not unwilling to use. But he is not Mike Hammer and he recognizes that flight is often his best move. Sean is a fan and a student of crime fiction. He uses classic and modern detective novels as his training manuals. He frequently attracts the interest of taller women.

Sean is approached by a woman of obvious quality who says she needs a private investigator. She leaves Sean’s office, making no commitment. Intrigued because she was recommended by a powerful local attorney, Ephraim Harcourt Saint Martin, with whom Sean has less than cordial relations, he shrugs off the incident until the police call him to view her body in the morgue. There he discovers her name is Magda Bryce, wife of one of the law firm’s most important attorneys.

Sean is assaulted in his home and warned to stay away from Bryce and her family. He subsequently learns that an unknown detective has been nosing around asking a lot of questions. He goes on the offensive and appears in the offices of Harcourt, St. Martin, Bryce, Bryce, et cetera, where he satisfies himself that Saint Martin didn’t know of Magda’s visit. As he persists and digs deeper into a tangled web of perversion, faithlessness and distrust, Sean becomes convinced that as sure as his Keds are red, he will ascertain the true motives and unmask a killer who lives among the partners and associates of the beleaguered law firm.