Unicorn Airlines Flight 739 with no pilot, no crew, and no passengers lands at Anchorage International Airport. As the authorities are wondering what happened, a ransom demand is made for the passengers: $25 million in diamonds. Chief of Detectives for the Sandersonville, North Carolina, Police Department, Captain Heinz Noonan, is visiting his in-laws in Anchorage when he is called onto the case. He has 36 hours to determine how crew and passengers disappeared off Unicorn Airlines Flight 739 before the $25 million in diamonds is paid to the extortionists. But can he solve what appears to be an impossible crime, free the hostages, arrest the perpetrators, and resolve The Matter of the Deserted Airliner before the ransom is paid?