John Deakin is a secret agent posing as a thief on his way to jail. Boarding a special government train in handcuffs, he begins a terrifying journey that brings him face-to-face with death. Various passengers on an 1873 train across the frozen west to Fort Humboldt turn out to have smuggling and murder in mind.

An all-business San Francisco ad executive falls into an improbable, life-altering romance with a bohemian, free-spirited woman with a secret, who usually discards her new beaus after a month.

The time is the 1950s: seedy Brooklyn private eye Harry Angel is hired by shady Louis Cyphre to locate a pop singer who reneged on a debt. Harry ventures into Harlem, the first step of a Heart of Darkness-inspired odyssey.