Life is looking up for Alex Matthews in the spring of 1979. He’s quit drinking and has a steady job driving a taxi. The old ladies who book a cab for trips to the market favor this polite young man, as do the drunks that need a ride from the bars that dot the peninsula from San Fransisco to San Jose.

Life gets more complicated, however, when “Gentleman” Jim Moloney jails his cab. The boxer-turned-private-detective hires Alex as his personal driver. Within days the detective and cabbie are hired to solve a murder that hits close to home.

The investigation takes them into the dive bars that Alex used to frequent, and also into the posh homes of Hillsborough. People keep dying, and the killer has taken a personal interest in the ex-boxer . . . and in Alex.