A collision of Lark Larsen’s new boat with “the Maintenance Free” in Hamilton Bay leads to the murder of local handyman Webster Howard. Lark hires an intelligence operative, Detective Clyde Hooper whose antics annoy and frustrate Matthias Jones’s investigation of the murder. Cocoa Stefani falls in love with a beautiful but innocent brunette, Janet Boudreaux, but J.B. soon becomes a Jones suspect. Trooper Banastre O’Connell appears to have been romantically involved with the overspending Mabel Howard, Webster’s wife. In the middle of the investigation is Reverend John Paul Bricker and” his church.” From a bar on Cape Cod Jones and Cocoa track the killer, while shadowed by Clyde Hooper and his helper, the ever-bumbling Bucky Driscoll.