A missing tenant, an irate mother–in–law, and a killer hiding in a Toronto rooming house—out–of–work PI Patrick Bird is back in business.

Patrick Bird thought he was helping his mother–in–law collect back rent from a deadbeat tenant at her Ossington Avenue rooming house, not starting a new investigation. But when he discovers Jack Turner’s third–floor darkroom is demolished and the photographer is missing, the other tenants come under scrutiny: Mr. Yusuf, the international student training to be a doctor; Danny Blinken, the shifty taxi driver; and Shirley Burton, the young nurse far from home.

As Bird investigates, he uncovers information about a former tenant, James Earl Ray, who had assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. just weeks earlier and had been hiding out in a room on the second floor.