After being approached by a shell-shocked Vietnam War veteran who claims to have gotten into a fight protecting a white woman from a black man, Easy embarks on an investigation that takes him from mountaintops to the desert, through South Central and into sex clubs and the homes of the fabulously wealthy, facing hippies, the mob, and old friends perhaps more dangerous than anyone else.

When an infamous serial killer known as the Poet reemerges, FBI agent Rachel Walling, long haunted by her unsuccessful efforts to bring him to justice, receives assistance from LAPD detective Harry Bosch.