Private investigator Dan Ballantine visits a Piper Cherokee crashed into a dry desert lake. Sacramento physician Steven Reynolds left a widow who wants her million dollars in life insurance money, but the FAA crew could not find the pilot's head attached to the crisply burned corpse. The widow tells Dan her husband had an ongoing affair with a nurse. When Dan visits the hospital, he overhears a truck driver complain about his brother's missing corpse. At the nurse's apartment, Dan learns she took an emergency leave. He steals the trash she left and discovers she wrote checks to an Idaho tax assessor. Dan stops in Reno to visit his FBI agent pal, Brad Gunn. He mentions the case and a day later Gunn tells Dan the doctor's son recently cashed in some old stocks. Not only did he fail to pay income taxes on his $1.6 million profit, the Army captain son was killed during Operation Desert Storm. A man threatens the truck driver at gun point to stop looking for his deceased brother. Dan goes to Boise in search of the armed doctor, his nurse lover, and $1.6 million in cash.