A jogger out for an early morning run discovers Nigel Butler, a hairdresser, dead, with a comb and scissors stuck up his ass, upside down in a trashcan in front of the Columbia Library. Jimmy Dugan, the only detective in the small Westchester town of Columbia, goes to the salon where Nigel worked and discovers that one of his former clients - a man he had a disagreement with - is Joey Davies, a "retired" mafioso and Columbia's most prominent citizen. Jimmy's investigation into the murder takes a twisting path with some unusual consequences: his family is threatened; there's a shoot-out in Columbia ; the mob in a neighboring town is torn apart. Still whoever killed Nigel Butler remains on the loose.