El Malabarista, pianist and juggler for a troupe of sexual performance artists, is found dead in the dusty wilderness, his fingers crushed. Beginning like a murder mystery, this novel defies all the usual expectations of a murder mystery plot, by juxtaposing ""real"" events in two different decades with a draft version of a hack sci-fi novella. This mixed narrative serves as a meta-fictional commentary on the efforts of a retired sex-theatre artist, a hairstylist/pulp writer, a doctoral student, and a host of other characters to, not only solve the murder, but to uncover its motivation, which seems to be linked to El Malabarista's knowledge of the whereabouts of a certain boxed treasure.