It’s a beautiful spring day in the little city of Holloman, Connecticut; the year is 1967, and the world teeters on the brink of nuclear holocaust as the Cold War goes relentlessly on. But Holloman has other things to worry about on April 3rd, 1967; twelve murders have take in place on one day. Suddenly Captain Carmine Delmonico, chief of detectives, has other, more important matters to occupy him than finding a satisfactory name for his infant son.

With his cohorts Abe Goldberg and Corey Marshall giving him unfailing support, Carmine embarks on what looks like an insoluble case. All the murders are different, and no victim is connected to any of the others. One group centres on the great university, Chubb, while another is inextricably tied to the armaments giant, Cornucopia. And as if twelve murders were not enough, Carmine soon finds himself pitted against the mysterious Ulysses, a spy giving Cornucopia’s armaments secrets to the Russians. Are the murders and espionage different cases, or are they somehow linked?