Easy Rawlins returns home, thinking as usual about Bonnie. He misses her every day but cannot bring himself to call her: to hear that she is now with another man. At his house he finds the tall and elegant woman-child Feather playing with a living Asian doll - Easter Dawn. She says that her father, Christmas Black, brought her to him and claims that Easy would look after her until his business was over. Easy is puzzled. He owes a lot to the ex-marine; the man saved his life when he was wounded. The fact that he left Easter with him means that Christmas is either dead, or soon will be. A mysterious army captain, Clarence Miles, wearing a suit and tie and a huge smile accosts Easy with two military policemen. They want to hire Easy to find Christmas Black. It's a secret assignment. Easy takes the job for 75 dollars a day plus expenses: gas lodging out of town, meals and any small bribe money (under 21 dollars). Easy feels lost on a darkening sea. The love of his life is getting married to another man, he suddenly has a new daughter, a friend sought for murder, and another friend that he's been hired to betray. And in all of it he has only one clue: a bumblebee-sized hole in a ceiling and three drops of blood...