The Butcher's Boy seeks to collect the debt by terrorizing the Mafia - the lifelong source of his freelance jobs and current nemesis - into backing off.

As the violence escalates around the United States, her colleagues and superiors suspect internecine warfare among the bad guys, though Waring deduces the fact that one man on a mission may be the key.

As she works her way closer to his identity, she comes to admire his audacity and remorseless, and his creative efficiency in staying one step ahead of the Mob's death sentence.

The point of view switches back and forth between Waring and the killer, as he succeeds in evading both his Mafia pursuers and the government agents.

However, he will find himself in similar circumstances decades later in Sleeping Dogs and The Informant, where both he and Waring have aged and share the knowledge and context of the earlier stories.