"The story is set in Montandino, an imaginary town in the Southwest. The Latino chief of police is the most powerful figure in the town, which houses little besides the Graysmith Research Laboratory and the Hammerling Engineering School. During the search for a missing research monkey, the police chief finds the body of the lab director in a pit used for maternal deprivation experiments. The director's young graduate assistant is found murdered a few days later.

Is there a connection between these two deaths? Matters are complicated by The Mercy Bandits, animal rights terrorists modeled after The Band of Mercy, a 19th century group which rescued cart horses in London from abusive drivers."--BOOK JACKET.