New York private eye Mark Renzler was worried about getting enough money for some more beer. And to pay some bills. So when the call came from Chicago, asking if he would be willing to fly out on Arnold Long's personal jet and take on a job for the publisher of Paradise magazine, Renzler said sure. Then he called Nate Moore, his sometime partner, and invited him along for the ride.

It doesn't take long for Mark and Nate to discover that there's trouble in Paradise. Angel-of-the-Month Sherri West is missing... after receiving some anonymous and threatening notes. She isn't the first centerfold to get them, but there's a difference; she's the first one to get them before her pictures were published.

While the streets of 1969 Chicago teem with anti-war demonstrators, Mark and Nate run into people with different types of agitation in mind. First, there's Sherri's boyfriend Pablo, part-time radical and full-time creep. There's Cindi, Sherri's sister, who seems less than concerned about her missing sibling. There's Reverend Whitey, who seems to be leading the campaign against the magazine. And then there are the Wyders, a father and daughter preparing to publish the first issue of their magazine, Nook. Their proposed premiere centerfold - Sherri West!