The novel opens with undercover police officer John Chota attending a meeting of the "Young Barons," a militant group favoring Puerto Rico independence.

Dieter Kopfeinlaufen and Rapudiman Kohonduro, assisted by Nurse Ingrid Konkruka, and staff member Helen Christianpath.

The top floor of the hospital, a solarium, has been converted into a fake hockey rink, complete with scoreboards and a sound system.

He did well in sports, had a near fatal accident in Army survival school, married well, had two children and then an affair, but felt he was missing something and walked out on his life.

The police are there, disguised as doctors, and utter chaos breaks out, amplified by the nitrous oxide the militants released, thinking it was ether.

Rather than the affair he was expecting, she reveals that she works for a government agency that has been watching Garboil since his Army days—they implanted hypnotic suggestions during his recovery—and they want him to spy on Puerto Rican groups.

He leaves in the middle of the night, shakes off a police tail, ends up at his apartment, where he finds Chota threatening to rape and murder Soto.