Eager to expand his reach, publisher Thurman Boucher paid an obscene amount of money for the Cambridge Daily Banner, a flyweight local paper. But when he ignores his side of the bargain and blue-pencils the masthead, he sends the former owner, Linda Cushing, down a road of depression that ends in death. Although the headlines indicate that it's a cut-and-dried suicide, one of Linda's life-long friends doesn't buy the story, and enlists Bethany to do some freestyle investigative reporting.

A former college wrestler, Vietnam vet, and reluctant hero-for-hire, Bethany's always willing to go a few bouts for a good cause. Soon he body-presses his way into the newspaper arena, as Boucher's new right-hand man.

As skilled at negotiation as he is at seduction, Boucher presides over an impressive media empire. His peers call him the Cobra, and his sexually voracious wife, Alison, is the perfect mate. From his house - bigger than the president of Harvard's, to his Rolls Royce, from his large collection of unread books to the first-class gym above his garage, Boucher plays media mogul. And Bethany goes along with the game.

With his own private agenda, Bethany downsizes, upgrades, and pushes all the deadlines on his one-way ride to the top. In the gym, Bethany's speed and skill give him the advantage. But Boucher is ruthless - armed with a natural aggression that's a powerful weapon in any competition. Meanwhile Alison circles the sidelines, vying for Bethany's attention in a different set of moves altogether.

Now that Bethany's on the inside, he readies a team to corner Boucher: Felicia Lamport, the executor of Linda Cushing's estate who tipped Bethany off to Boucher's style; Hope Edwards, Bethany's married lover and director of the ACLU who wants to see Bethany take Boucher - but forfeit Alison; and Gladys Williams, a Tufts medical student who is lured out of her self-imposed retirement from the crime lab.

When Boucher concocts a lethal conspiracy, Bethany decides to bring him to his knees once and for all. But the publisher is on to Bethany, and ready to deliver some punishing holds of his own...