Sam Stone, an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Birmingham, Alabama, gives banjo lessons to a promising Gates scholar as Sam undergoes a bitter divorce with his second wife and boss, Linda Lott. Meanwhile, Sam's ex-wife, Regina Jones Oliveira, a direct descendant of the former Confederate families from Americana, Brazil, wants Sam back and launches an international plan of action to get what she wants. The story carries the reader on a legal expedition to the former Panama Canal Zone, modern Panama, the Cayman Islands, and Switzerland. Against this background, Sam and his talented Labrador retriever, Holmes, take on some very clever Vietnam era veterans with foreign accounts and rich real estate holdings. These crooks hold a huge advantage. They have a federal judge on their side.