The four members of Dante's Delight Purgatorio do not consider what they do to be in any sense sado­masochistic. Of course, society at large takes a different view. And society at large includes Julie Whitcomb's new­met lover, Police Detective Dave Clayton, for whom she hopes to retire from purgatorial activity. Society at large also includes Angela Garvey, childhood sweetheart of the lad Julie hopes to mold into her Dante's Delight replacement, Corwin "Thesaurus Kid" Poe.

When murdered bodies start turning up wearing the membership mark of Dante's Delight, it falls to Dave's immediate superior, Detective Sergeant Lestrade, to determine the guilt or innocence of the obvious prime suspects. And Rosemary Lestrade got into police work less to catch the guilty than to clear the innocent.