Word spreads that Nick Moore has left San Francisco for good, leaving Maggie Laurent struggling to keep the Moore Detective Agency afloat. Cops, the D.A., and the other private detectives in town all predict she'll be out of business by Christmas, and she's not sure they aren't right. Then one day, her silent partner, Dickie Vance, invites her to lunch. He has a job for her. Find out what's going on with Herman Peters, Dickie's favorite cab driver and one of the "Nob Hill Irregulars" that feeds him gossip on the city's elite.

During their weekly boxing lesson, Maggie learns that Herman's fiancée, Vera Kowalski, has dumped him and tasks Maggie with finding out why. This simple request leads Maggie deep into the world of labor unrest, the IWW, the Sedition Act, and into the arms of one of Herman's friends, a charming-as-hell Irishman. As the state gubernatorial election draws near, the city brass will pull out the stops to ensure that San Francisco remains peaceful for the next few months, even as the aftermath of the stock market crash begins to bite-and bite hard. Banks start foreclosing on homes, families sleep in their cars, men sleep on the sidewalks, soup lines begin to form, and the rumblings of union busting get louder. When this powder keg of unrest explodes with the arrival of Pinkerton operatives, the chain reaction of murder and violence threatens the lives of union members, cops-and Maggie herself.