Private eye Joe Copp can't seem to avoid trouble, or beautiful women. A dazzling theater director employs Copp as a bodyguard for her leading actor. Before he can say boo, Copp finds himself in the middle of a maelstrom. He's beaten-up by U.S. Marshals, somebody's taken shots at him, and he's facing a trumped up charge of kidnapping.

The case gets even more convoluted when Copp is approached to find a missing son that looks very much like the actor he's protecting. The duplicity begins to rise to the surface as cast-members start showing up dead, and the mob and FBI appear to be part of the audience. All of this appropriately set to the backdrop of a performance of La Mancha.

Pendleton's fourth in the Copp series pushes the mystery genre to a new level of excitement.