In New Orleans, Detective Dave Robicheaux takes up the case of the Fontenot family, an old family in danger of losing their ancestral land. Local mobsters have something to say about Robicheaux`s interference with the Fontenot`s, and some how this all leads back to Sonny Boy Marsallus, a gambler who decided to head for Central America after he ran up against the powerful Giacana family one too many times.