When Detective Dave Robicheaux discovers disturbing secrets from his mother's past, he embarks on a journey through a murky world of vice, politics and murder. Robicheaux has been told that his mother, Mae, was a hooker and ended her life drowned in a mud puddle by two cops working for the Mob. The story began when Mae boarded the Sunset Limited train to Hollywood, and ended tragically one stormy night on the edge of the bayou on Purple Cane Road. As Robicheaux and his partner hunt for the killers, they hook up with a door-to-door salesman turned state governor, a psychotic hit-man with an unnerving ability to walk through doors, and the owner of the mansion at Purple Cane Road - who knows rather too much about Robicheaux's wife.