Dick Contino - 50s accordion player, a star in the making, is destroyed by a draft-dodging scandal. His life is on the skids until he comes up with the idea of resurrecting his career with a fake kidnapping scam.

Meanwhile a serial killer is on the loose in Los Angeles ... a killer who is closer to Contino than he suspects - a killer who wants in on the kidnap, for real . . .

Plus five previously unpublished short stories.