C.B. Green has a unique perspective of the world. This Portland, Oregon, private detective is color blind. But he doesn't let this detail stop him from doing his job and doing it well. He's a good guy; he's known as someone who never lies, never cheats, and never steals. And now, being a good guy, he takes on more cases than usual.
His first client, Jane Wye, wants C.B. to recover the twenty million dollars her lawyer-husband, Jack, stashed away before someone put a bullet in his head. Along the way, C.B. picks up two unintended clients. The first is Marion Edmunds, an old woman who volunteers at the public library. She knows she saw a crime that no one else believes happened. The second client is a dead girl, seventeen-year-old Jessica Long. Her dying words to C.B. were, "Help me."
At the outset, it appears that these three cases have nothing in common. But soon C.B. discovers that these jobs are connected by a personification of evil so vile that it tests the bounds of his unique justice.