When a nightclub singer hired private eye, Dan'l Coffey to find her son, he had no idea that his search would lead him to a double homicide that would send him after Damien Crain, a nineteen year old kid who believes he has been cursed. The clues Coffey finds lead him to a St. Louis "Hooverville" on the Mississippi, a hobo jungle in Illinois, and a fellow called "Banjer Jack".

When he finds the kid in the company of a fortune teller, Coffey, a rationalist, learns that there are some things that just can't be explained.