Quax, a nonalcoholic beer, becomes the center of a political feud when a nineteen-year-old dies in a drunken car wreck. Kischel Brewery has created Quax as a nonalcoholic alternative to its popular beers. NOBBY, No Beer-Buying Youngsters, a grassroots organization asserting that nonalcoholic beer primes youngsters for premature alcohol abuse, takes the brewery to court.

When Rugby's, a national fast-food chain, decides to sell Quax along with its burgers and fries, NOBBY finds further cause for alarm. Mrs. Madeline Underwood reigns tireless and fierce at the helm of NOBBY's campaign against the fast-food chain. The political figures she has found to champion NOBBY's cause grow weary as Mrs. Underwood's stance becomes increasingly extreme. Her abrasive style succeeds in escalating NOBBY's protest of Rugby's in Manhattan into a full-scale riot.

As tempers and egos flare, Mrs. Underwood is murdered. It becomes clear that in spite of her noble cause, she succeeded in alienating and antagonizing even her supporters. Suspects are in no short supply. Kischel Brewery is an important client of Thatcher's bank, so the case falls into his capable hands. Trying to make sense of this nonalcoholic storm, Thatcher uncovers an intoxicating cover-up.