Jack Susko is trying for a quiet life in his second-hand bookshop in downtown Sydney. It's more tin mine than gold mine, yet it's his and that's something. But when a wealthy businessman hires Jack to locate some books for him, life starts to get a little more complicated.

Soon he's up to his neck in family secrets, corruption and murder, plunged into a world he thought he'd left behind. Making a play for the businessman's beautiful daughter doesn't help matters. And as the bodies start piling up, Jack can't help but wonder when second-hand book dealing became so dangerous.