It's Saturday night in the 87th Precinct, and the fun is about to start Detective Steve Carella answers the first call - he is the one who finds the note from the Avenging Angel in the nude dancer's room The girl herself is in the alley, a knife protruding from her well-developed chest Within twenty-four hours an insane bigot has bombed a ghetto church, a weekend hippie has been murdered and detective Andy Parker lies near death, the victim of two slugs from a killer's gun Suddenly, it all seems like more than the detectives of the 87th can handle