When a young woman named Carla Lindo Ramada wants to hire Garrett to find the book, at least she sheds some light on the mystery.

In an attempt to save himself, Garrett forms an uneasy alliance with Crask and Sadler, Chodo's main henchmen, to overthrow the crime lord.

(The pair had loyally served Chodo, expecting to inherit his power when he finally died, but the book would make him practically immortal.)

In a confused battle at Chodo's mansion involving all the parties, Crask and Sadler manage to take over from their boss, while Garrett and Winger escape alive.

Richard E. Geis in the Science Fiction Review criticized the novel for not delivering answers to several questions raised by the plot, and for "the use of present-day slang [that] stopped me cold", calling Cook's dialogue philosophy "lazy and the equivalent of playing tennis with the net down.