Since losing his job and its regular paycheck at an Albany investigative firm, life for private investigator Edward Zachery Taylor, known as Easy, is going downhill. In business for himself—with no boss, no client, and no money—Easy's car has been repossessed and he's behind on his rent. Getting a referral from his friend, veterinarian Henrietta Van Vonderhueeks, Easy reluctantly accepts the assignment of finding Catskill sheep farmer Diana Hunter's missing pit bull which may have been abducted for dog fighting.

With retainer in hand, Easy immediately places bets with his local bookie who gives him a lead that takes him into the seamy underworld of dog fighting. Then, on an errand for the veterinarian to a local testing lab, Easy encounters the bizarre genetic research being conducted there by Dr. Phyllis Steen. The two worlds converge in the lab's secretive efforts at genetically altering the nature of beasts by transforming passive creatures into aggressive ones.