Once she'd been a dancer. Now she lies on a sidewalk, her blood seeping into the snow. Detectives Carella, Kling, Meyer and Brown are learning all about ice; in a multimillion-dollar showbiz scam, in the glittering diamonds that spill out of a dead man's vest, in the veins of a small-time pusher. As the cops scramble for evidence, as the city shivers, a killer is one step ahead, and the heat is still on.