Mario Balzic is a police chief so close to his people that nothing moves in the town of Rocksburg, PA, without his knowing how and why.
In this his fifth case, Balzic finds himself caught up in both union contract negotiations and a web of lies and disappearances that begins when Jimmy Romanelli sells the bartender at Muscotti's Bar several baskets of tomatoes, and ends amid multiple deaths and disappearances. In the aftermath, Balzic is forced to come to terms with his past, his drinking, and his late father's best friend.