When Robin Scott accepts an assignment to investigate statewide unemployment insurance fraud, he must work entirely alone, with no clues or theories about how—or by whom—the fraud is being carried out. After a quick review of the state's insurance program, Robin still doesn't know where to begin until a newspaper article catches his attention almost by chance. It reports that a young man carrying five Social Security cards has been found beaten to death on one of the state's remote country roads. A swift investigation into the victim's background and associates leads Robin to develop a theory that others consider far-fetched: the murdered youth was a small cog in the machinery of the statewide swindle. After a near-fatal encounter with two members of the operation, Robin poses as a racketeer to make further contact with the gang.