It's the kind of case that has "NO!" written all over it. But ex-cop Carlotta Carlyle has a p.i. license getting moldy from disuse, so she takes on the search for a little old lady's missing brother. After all, how much trouble could an aging cabbie get into?

There's a mysterious woman who speaks broken English sitting in Carlotta's office with a newspaper clipping about a mutilated corpse. Suddenly Carlotta is plunged into the desperate world of illegal aliens, the cold-hearted immigration agents who hunt them down, and the deadly "coyotes" who bring the innocents across the border.

When private investigator Carlotta Carlyle is wakened by a late-night phone call, she discovers that her “little sister,” Paolina, the child with whom she was paired years ago by a local mentoring program, is missing. Carlotta combs the Boston streets looking for Paolina, torn between anger at the thoughtless teenage runaway and anxiety that something has really happened to her.