Ex-IRS agent turned gumshoe-in-training Mortimer Angel is approached by a beautiful hooker, Holiday, in a casino bar in Reno. Mort first met Holiday two months ago, but now learns that she’s not really a hooker. She’s a college engineering student, searching for her younger sister, Allie, who disappeared three months ago. Having seen Mort in the news, Holiday knows he’s a PI who finds missing persons. While in the bar with Mort, Holiday gets an unexpected phone call from Allie, who says she’s in Gerlach, a small town in Nevada. The phone call is cut off.

Holiday hires Mort on the spot, dragging him off to Gerlach. On the way out of town, Mort picks up a FedEx package. Opening it the following morning, he finds the severed hand of U.S. Senator Harry Reinhart, a presidential candidate in the upcoming general election. Reinhart’s hand doesn’t appear to be Mort’s problem, but as he looks into Allie’s disappearance, he makes a connection between her disappearance and Reinhart’s hand that quickly turns deadly --- very deadly.