When a nightclub singer hired private eye Dan'l Coffey to find her son he had no idea that his search would lead him to a double homicide that would send him after Damien Crain; a nineteen year old kid who believes he has been cursed. The clues Coffey finds lead him to a St. Louis Hooverville on the Mississippi a hobo jungle in Illinois and a fellow called Banjer Jack. When he finds the kid in the company of a fortune teller Coffey a rationalist learns that there are some things that just can't be explained.