Findo Gask is a Goblin, a Private Detective licenced in both the surface world of the humans and the Lower Realms, also known as the Underworld.
Gask meets with a (nameless) client in a seedy bar called the Deepest Joy to collect on debts he is owed for services rendered. The client resists making the final payment and Gask is forced to use blackmail in order to extract a signed cheque.
After the ex-client has left, Gask falls into conversation with Maddoes the bartender. Gask pays his bar bill and tips Maddoes generously to encourage the barkeeper to contact the detective with information.
Findo heads for his office in a low-rent and nondescript cavern, only to find his dissolute older brother Nether Gask sitting in his office chair and drinking whiskey.
Much to Findo Gask's surprise, he discovers that his drunk brother Nether Gask want to hire the detective. Nether pays Findo an advance in scruffy bills and Findo writes him a receipt.
Findo Gask recalls how the brother he used to look up to suddenly disappeared without warning and how, much later, he managed to track down Nether Gask and return him to the Lower Realms to attend their Mother's deathbed. Findo located Nether in Chill's Bar in New York, where he has been the guest of Tighe o'Chill for many years.
Nether Gask tells his brother Findo that he is still living in Chill's Bar in New York, and that the current proprietor Rosie o'Chill (granddaughter of Tighe o'Chill) has gone missing. Findo is asked to track down the missing Rosie.
Findo dispatches Nether back to Chill's Bar with instructions to sit tight. Findo makes some phone calls to organise things, then takes dinner in his favourite diner run by David, the restaurant's owner.
Findo visits the New York offices of Martin Gamshack, usually known as Gumshoe. Findo presents the human PI with money as an advance on his services.
Findo Gask briefs Gumshoe on their commission. Gumshoe makes enquiries of the NYPD, then visits Chill's Bar. Meanwhile Findo makes his way back to the Lower Realms, followed for a time by a large and blocky human.
Gumshoe's visit to Chill's Bar was not a success. He was unable to glean any information from either staff or regulars, and is forced to leave when a boorish man starts getting unruly.
Meanwhile Findo Gask visits a shady backstreet magical emporium run by Gaur, where he places a deposit on a powerful magical spell.
Findo Gask pays a call on Harriet Luncardy, a Captain in the Lower Realms police force. Findo tells Luncardy about his brother Nether Gask suddenly reappearing and asks a favour: for Luncardy to check the police records for any information about Nether.
Findo returns to his apartment where he finds his younger sister Trinity Gask waiting for him. Findo recalls Trinity's abortive engagement to the womaniser Forneth Butterstone.
Trinity is a professional bodyguard. She approaches Findo with another commission: to locate a Goblin who was under her protection, but who has now disappeared.
Trinity Gask tells Findo Gask that her missing client is Professor Urquhart Garrick. Findo is astonished and horrified, having tangled with Garrick on previous occasions, but agrees to take on Trinity's case.
Trinity and Findo go for dinner at David's diner, where Trinity tells the PI more about her business relationship with Garrick, and the mysterious circumstances under which he came to disappear.
After Trinity leaves, Findo receives a telephone message from Nether Gask, who tells him that Rosie o'Chill has reappeared having been kidnapped, dazed and confused, and apparently having been subjected to a memory-modifying glamour.
The next morning, Findo Gask makes his way to Chill's Bar in New York City. He enters the closed bar discreetly and encounters Nether Gask, who describes the circumstances of Rosie o'Chill release.
Findo interviews Rosie, who is recovering in bed. He correctly deduces that not only has Rosie been abducted but she has been taken to the Lower Realms and recently returned, even though she cannot remember the visit.
Findo Gask persuades Rosie o'Chill to show him and Nether Gask the New York alley where she woke up. Findo asks Gumshoe to drive his car to assist them.
After an hour's search, Rosie identifies a likely alley. Findo, Nether and Gumshoe accompany Rosie on foot. On exploring the alley, they suddenly encounter Trinity Gask emerging from a hidden entrance. After a tense moment, Trinity relaxs and Findo introduces her to the others.
Trinity Gask is persuaded to invite Findo Gask, Nether Gask, Rosie o'Chill and Gumshoe inside the building from which she has just emerged. The building turns out to be an import-export warehouse for goods from the Lower Realms.
In the office attached to the warehouse complex, Gumshoe tells Trinity about Rosie's abduction and sudden re-appearance just outside. Trinity is adamant that Rosie was not transported through her warehouse.
The discussion is abruptly terminated when the warehouse is raided by human cops. Trinity shows the others a hidden exit, which she encourages them to use to escape the raid.
