Pola Drach, Independent Eye in a city founded by refugees from a dying Earth, is hired to find a student's missing notebook. The problem is, the notebook was lost while the young man was engaged in activities deeply frowned on by his community. Pola tracks the notebook to the abode of the young "joyboy" her client was engaged with, only to find him dead and the notebook missing. Then her client himself is murdered, and it's clear someone very badly wants Pola not to continue looking for the missing notebook. Badly enough to try to kill her as well. What looks like a simple task becomes more and more complicated, and Pola must work with two other Independent Eyes to reveal financial skullduggery, blackmail, and forbidden passion that leads to murder.