A soldier reported killed-in-action in 1918 is a drowning victim in a boathouse in 1923 Boston. A young lady missing for five weeks is a drowning victim and surfaces in the same boathouse. As children, they were neighbors.

The cases are assigned to Detective O'Meara and Sergeant Parker, who realize their limitations when dealing with Boston's upper crust. O'Meara is of Irish descent, and Parker, although a proper born and raised Bostonian, is a policeman.

Ione, Archie, and Tango, a greyhound whose nose finds clues, are called upon to help cut through the elitist barrier. Archer was born and raised on Louisburg Square, Beacon Hill. Because he is a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant, commonly referred to as a WASP, he can open doors denied the police.