William Von Becker ran one of the largest privately held investment banks in North America, until the whole edifice was demonstrated to be a fraud. After Von Becker dies in prison, financial investigator Jason Stafford is hired by his family. There is still a lot of missing money out there, he's told, and they want him to find it before the Feds do -- and certain other parties, some of whom are nowhere near as scrupulous. Bad things start happening to the people Stafford talks to. And soon bad things are happening to him as well.