She wears violet lipstick. Gloria Morris is an esteemed private detective, a kindly woman who champions the gentle and innocent, a fearsome virago who dishes out harsh justice to the evil and guilty. She is also a lover, and her inamorata embraces her tenderness and will do nothing to inhibit Gloria's explosive sense of honor. Local politicians know the world is a better place because of Gloria. Her street contacts will kill for her.

Now Gloria must ascertain why people around her are dying, each one involved with a past mutual acquaintance. She investigates and hunts throughout The City. Businesspeople, underground doctors, lawyers, thieves, household servants, and hired assassins enter the fracas as victims or perpetrators. She unearths a femme fatale whose devotion to a dead socialite and killer morphs into a storm of rage that drives a murderous revenge. Is Gloria next on the woman's roll call of victims?