Wrongly convicted murderer, John Adams, escapes from confinement in New Orleans and flees to Toledo where he assumes the identity of deceased private detective Marcus Phoenix. Before he can work on clearing his own name, a beautiful widow convinces him to solve her husband's untimely death. The police call it suicide, the widow calls it murder, even though her husband is shot in a room locked from the inside. Only when the local mob boss tells him to keep away from the investigation does Marcus learn the widow is a mob princess. But, he's never been known to back down from a challenge, so he plows ahead through dead and dying victims. And maybe, just maybe, the widow's love will become one of his rewards.