In the beige neighborhoods of North Texas, mercy isn't always a virtue - it's often a violation. Morris "Stinky" Tate has spent his life believing that rules are the highest form of goodness, that compliance is dignity, and that fairness is whatever the handbook says it is - and the handbook says whatever he needs it to say. He isn't cruel, he insists. He isn't corrupt, he insists. He is something far more dangerous: a man who believes procedure is justice. When a middle¿aged couple die suddenly after colliding with a street racer, their daughter is left alone - except for her old classmates, Gwen and Ben Flora. The siblings arrive expecting to help her through bereavement, maybe steady her through the first hard week. Instead, they find Tate's machine already at full speed.

Violation notices plastered across her door. Fines stacking up like sandbags. And the beige¿paper precursor to what Tate calls "initiating a nonjudicial assessment¿lien foreclosure action." Tate's racket is simple, predatory, and perfec.