Thomas Loberg has been looking for a job, and after three months and a few hundred letters and resumes, receives a call from Frederick Meehan at Mallory & Mallory. Publishers since 1902. Working at a publishing company, Tom decides, is a step in the right direction although not necessarily a step up from his previous job at Packer-Hill, a pharmaceutical company where he had come to like the idea of such things as cost-of-living raises, and flying first-class and even helping research scientists write papers in basic, readable English.

But finding a job isn't the best thing that takes place in his life. While eating lunch at the corner drugstore, he looks absently into the mirror behind the cash register at the faces at the counter. This one girl stood out. And she wasn't wearing a wedding or engagement ring.

It isn't long before Thomas is dragged into the sinking ship atmosphere at Mallory & Mallory and acquires his boss' job after he's found in the nearby Pawtoni River drowned. As he seeks to uncover the truth behind the apparent suicide, Thomas discovers that sometimes the truth comes with a high price.