Set in Oakland, California, white ex-convict Cal Winter returns home one day to find his gorgeous, young, black wife, Prudence, drowned in the swimming pool. Prudence couldn't swim, and Cal concludes she didn't go in the water willingly. Though theirs was a marriage of convenience, he takes the murder personally. Along with his former prison inmate, Red Eye, Cal sets out to find out who did Prudence in. His convoluted and often darkly humorous journey takes him deep into the world of the sexual urges of the rich and powerful and gradually reveals the many layers of his wife's complex identity. While doing so, Cal and Red Eye must confront their own racially charged pasts that still haunt them if the killer is to be caught.