The conflicts and motivations of this novel are based on the revenge theme and such social concerns as the feminist movement and organized crime.

Within the first two chapters, a leading advocate of women's rights, Margaret Lawrence Brown, is assassinated, and it is soon revealed that her successful campaign to encourage prostitutes to leave that life has so interfered with the operation of one crime boss's profits that he ordered a "hit" on her. Although equality for women is not preached, Collins shows through the aggressive response of the women who knew and loved Margaret that women can take charge of their lives.

The women characters seek revenge against the assassins with an elaborate scheme designed to get at the crime boss through his sons. Three entirely different types of women, bonded by their friendship and admiration for Margaret, plan three different methods to entrap the...