The body of a murdered Korean liquor store owner is unearthed at the intersection of Florence and Normandie. Against a background of increasing racial tension, black private eye Ivan Monk searches for the killer. Then another body turns up. And while the BI and the Rolling Daltons, the largest gang in the city, dog his trail, Monk questions whether there's more than mere murder happening. Questions that wealthy power broker Maxfield O'Day may have the answers to.

Monk is propelled towards a conclusion that may foment another Violent Spring in the tarnished City of Angels.