Lt. Lenore Thomas, working undercover in the slightly surreal industrial wasteland that is the Massachusetts town of Quinsigamond, comes face to face with a new street drug that is tearing through the city, killing users and threatening the fragile balances struck between the underworld`s crime lords. Meanwhile Thomas`s postal worker brother, Ike, has a been keeping an eye on an unrented p.o. box--the contents of a number of packages sent to box number nine are starting to smell like rotting meat.