Milwaukee 1932, the Great Depression going full blast, repeal of Prohibition just around the corner, Al Capone in the federal pen, the private investigation business shifting from labour-management relations to the more domestic kind. Hicks McTaggart, a onetime strikebreaker turned private eye, thinks heÕs found job security until he gets sent out on what should be a routine case, locating and bringing back the heiress of a Wisconsin cheese fortune whoÕs taken a mind to go wandering. Before he knows it, heÕs been shanghaied onto a transoceanic liner, ending up eventually in Hungary where thereÕs no shoreline, a language from some other planet, and enough pastry to see any cop well into retirement Ð and of course no sign of the runaway heiress heÕs supposed to be chasing.