For six stormy weeks in high school, V.I. Warshawski thought she was in love with Frank Guzzo. He broke up with her, she went off to college, he started driving trucks for a living. She forgot about him until the day his mother was arrested for bludgeoning his kid sister Annie to death.

Twenty-five years later, Stella is released and Frank comes to V. I., begging the private detective to help find grounds to exonerate his mother from a crime she claims she never committed. V.I. doesn't want to get involved, but life has been hard on Frank.

When V.I. agrees to ask a few questions, it's a painful journey to the past for her, to her old neighbourhood and the people she grew up with.

And when she gets beaten up after attending a youth-group meeting in her old 'hood, V.I.'s main question becomes whether she will live long enough to find the answers.