Ben­jamin Gold is a pri­vate eye who in 1952 takes on a mur­der case that impli­cates his ex-in-laws. Gold once prac­ticed law but changed pro­fes­sions after crack­ing up at the end of the war. The mur­der vic­tim was cru­sad­ing lawyer Mor­ry Sorin, who was shot in an appar­ent hold-up. The police con­sid­er the case closed, but Sor­in’s daugh­ter sus­pects a conspiracy.

Gold has a per­son­al score to set­tle with his for­mer in-laws. He is a Jew who mar­ried into a wealthy Gen­tile fam­i­ly that nev­er accept­ed him despite his whole­heart­ed efforts to assim­i­late. Gold’s mar­riage failed, but not before it irrec­on­cil­ably alien­at­ed him from his own par­ents and brother.

Gold relives this his­to­ry as he inves­ti­gates Sor­in’s mur­der. He also finds him­self the tar­get of an F.B.I. sting over his asso­ci­a­tion with Braun­stein, his for­mer psy­chi­a­trist whom the gov­ern­ment is try­ing to deport as a Com­mu­nist. Gold cracks the Sorin case, but to dubi­ous effect, giv­en his ex-in-laws’ suc­cess in skirt­ing pros­e­cu­tion. He’s left to devise his own way of achiev­ing justice.