Darold Sanderson, a midlevel accounting supervisor for a New York–based publishing company, has always led a very quiet, unassuming life and is content to keep it that way. His only close friends have already passed away, and the only remaining "person" in his life is Rock Hard, an old-time, hard-bitten private investigator. The only problem with the relationship is that no one other than Darold has ever seen or spoken to him, and Rock will only talk to Darold! Suddenly, Darold's whole life changes when he innocently discovers a minor accounting error in the company records, an error that would have cost his company $16,000. No big deal, these kinds of errors occur all the time. Darold corrects the error. His natural curiosity, however, leads Darold to try to discover why this error occurred. One thing leads to another, and before he knows it, Darold has met and begun living with a woman unlike any he has ever met. He also realizes that people are trying to kill him! But with Rock's help, Darold escapes one jam after another as he gets closer and closer to solving the mystery. To protect himself, since the police believe this is all in his imagination, Darold is forced to go into hiding and investigate the whole matter by himself. This leads Darold into a world that he never knew existed and may, at any time, cost him his life.