Winston Churchill Wolcott's promotion to the CID is greeted with both admiration and resentment among friends, family and colleagues. His more pressing concerns are the fatal stabbing of an elderly woman, and a particularly persistent journalist.

Wolcott begins to make sense of the local cross-racial infighting. But when blood is spilled in a shady nightclub, the aftermath reveals some surprises.

Suddenly, everyone loves Wolcott — and that can't be right. He's just begun to make waves when the powers that be decide to put him behind a desk.

Wolcott's haze of alcohol and despondency clears, and an ugly pattern of corruption comes into sharp focus. But it's a little too close to home.