Taking place some months after the events described in When Gravity Fails, Marîd Audran, once a small-time hustler on the streets of the decadent Budayeen, finds himself as one of the lieutenants of Friedlander Bey or "Papa", the most influential man in the city. With his independence taken from him and being stationed as a liaison between Bey and the local law enforcement under the supervision of Sergeant Hajjar, Audran is forced to pair up with his colleague Jirji Shaknahyi in order to track down yet another serial killer who likes to remove some of the internal organs of their victims. Although Hajjar does not share his theory about the murders being connected, Audran begins to suspect there might be more to the recent killings than meets the eye, and wonders where the so-called Phoenix File fits in.