Meeting an anonymous client late on a sizzling summer night is asking for trouble. But trouble is Chicago private eye V.I. Warshwski's specialty. Her client says he's the prominent banker, John Thayer. Turns out he's not. He says his son's girlfriend, Anita Hill, is missing. Turns out that's not her real name. V.I.'s search turns up someone soon enough -- the real John Thayer's son, and he's dead. Who's V.I.'s client? Why has she been set up and sent out on a wild-goose chase? By the time she's got it figured, things are hotter -- and deadlier -- than Chicago in July. V.I.'s in a desperate race against time. At stake: a young woman's life.

V.I. Warshawski is performing a favor when she drives her young friend Consuelo, 16 and pregnant, and her street-punk husband, Fabiano, to a job interview. When Consuelo's labor begins prematurely, Vic takes her to a private suburban hospital--whose staff, seeing "indigent" written all over a young Hispanic face, treats her only reluctantly. Consuelo and her baby don't live out the night. The next day the doctor who treated her is found brutally murdered, and V.I. Warshawski is hip-deep in a highly personal investigation. What she uncovers is an explosive nightmare of conspiracy and greed--where human life takes a back seat to the bottom line.