Days before the Pearl Harbor attack plunges the U.S. into World War II, private investigator Maggie Sullivan is hired to find a vanished engineer and missing data in Dayton, Ohio. Has Gil Tremain been kidnapped, or has he turned traitor — to his employer and maybe his country?

As Maggie starts to trace his last movements, an intruder in Tremain's apartment bashes her over the head, and kills a woman as he flees. Thugs try to abduct Tremain's daughter. There's an ugly secret in Tremain's past which his ex-wife wants to keep hidden. And the men who hired Maggie aren't leveling with her.

Meanwhile, a rival P.I. who once stole a case of Maggie's suddenly wants her to work for him. A flamboyant woman from the past of an aging cop friend may be involved. Most chilling of all, Maggie's poking attracts the attention of a local crime kingpin.

The attack in Hawaii presses every cop in the city into service safeguarding manufacturing and research facilities. People grapple with new uncertainty, and fear the mainland itself may be bombed. Amidst it all, and alone, Maggie fights to save a man who has now become a liability to his captors.