On the eve of the 1958 Cuban Revolution, Miami private eye Cormac Loame reluctantly returns to Havana to retrieve the teenaged daughter of prizefighter-turned-mob money launderer Cecil "Madman" Hacker. Combing the city, he runs across gangsters, jai-alai bums, famous authors, movie stars, and the woman he left behind six years earlier. With Castro's rebels edging closer, Loame races to find Lila Hacker as he plots to spirit his lost love back to Miami.