The body of a well-dressed young woman was found by the lake, but it turned out to be physically a man. A series of bizarre and violent crimes followed quickly: clothes stolen from a corpse in the city morgue during the night, brutal assaults on innocent persons, a body recovered from the water found to be murdered execution style. Li Weimin, the capable and beloved magistrate, aided by his former boxing master and his young chief constable, discover totally unsuspected goings on under the surface of his peaceful, prosperous city: gambling, extortion, kidnapping, murder, smuggling, and even high treason. Before he is able to put every piece of the puzzle in place, he himself is almost poisoned.