Los Angeles private detective Moses Wine has turned forty and is worried about his future. When Silicon Valley beckons, Moses jumps. He takes a position as head of security for the Tulip Computer Corporation and things start looking up: he gets a new car, a new house, and a new girlfriend. One thing stays the same, however--murder seems to follow him around. When one of Tulip's young geniuses is shot to death, Moses begins his investigation amid his new world of corporate infighting and bureaucratic bungling and soon finds himself involved in international computer theft, double-crossing beautiful women, the Japanese mafia, and the GRU. The trail takes him from Northern California to Los Angeles to the beautiful Japanese countryside to the mean streets of Tokyo.