Keno is twenty-three, a high-school dropout working as a rent collector for a slum landlord. Apart from hitting on the office secretary, Cass, his life is bleak. His job takes him into sad, mean places where kids wail, drunks fight and women get beaten up. He works his territory with Jaco, who's tougher and shiftier than any of the folks they're sent to shake rent out of.

One night Keno and Jaco finally catch up to one of their targets. But she'll never pay. She's dead. Battered almost beyond recognition. But they recognize her killer, and Jaco comes up with a scheme to blackmail him.

Now Keno has to decide who he is--bill collector or blackmailer. Or could he even be the good guy? Will he run or will he stay? In the end, will trusting himself help him outmaneuver a psychopathic killer?