Nick Polo's latest case finds him on familiar San Francisco turf where a Russian antiques dealer has hired him to locate Anna, the stunning holder of a valuable Mongol paitza - a dog tag of sorts originally worn by Ogodie Khan. Using no more than a defunct phone number and a grainy photograph of Anna, Polo soon catches up with the paitza's guardian. But before he can bring Anna and the treasure to his client, a rival investigator who is also hunting for the paitza winds up on a U.S. Army Fort with a slit throat. To catch the murderer and retrieve the Mongol badge, Nick must outmaneuver a United States Park Police officer, tanning salon prostitutes, military intelligence agents, and a shady German Consulate attache.