Everyman detective Charlie Bradshaw finds an old case coming back to haunt him in his seventh mystery in Saratoga Springs.

When a convict Charlie sent down some two decades earlier is paroled, death threats start arriving, while the skull of a woman who supposedly fled to South America shows up on a building site, drawing the detective back to his old case.

Meanwhile, girlfriend Janey wants to see some commitment from Charlie, and Victor is generally being unhelpful in the way that only the world worst hotel detective can.