Detective Ida Mae Rollins searches for the identity of a homicide victim who was dismembered and dumped along a road in southeastern Wisconsin. Her subsequent search for the killer leads the diminutive, spiky-haired blonde investigator on a body strewn trail that stretches from Wisconsin into Iowa and ultimately into southern Illinois, Arkansas and Missouri. Ida, as she prefers to be called, gets a lucky break while grocery shopping during a visit to her mother's farm. She spots a man she had believed to be murdered and follows him across the state line. What follows is a fast-paced discovery of drug dealing involving the man and his partner, a strikingly pretty pathological liar of a woman who detests men and her own mother. But is there anything linking the woman to men who were murdered in Wisconsin, Iowa and Missouri? Ida digs deep for physical evidence even as her own boss, Sheriff Peter Clark, wants action taken against the man who reported what he believed to be mere littering.