The protagonist spends the summer of 1963 in posh Montecito where her parents have bought a new home. She runs afoul of the psychopathic stepson of State Senator Norland but outwits him. Clever and fleet, she makes good use of her wits as he stalks her back in Berkeley where she has fallen in love with Albert Johnson, UC Berkeley's first black English professor. Her white supremacist mother joins forces with her wannabe molester. Together they plot to eliminate the professor, who has just asked the protagonist to marry him. The demented stepson stalks her on the train that she's taken to return home for Christmas. He shoots a porter and an off-duty policeman on the train and then goes after the protagonist. With her usual quick-thinking aplomb, she pulls the emergency cord, jumps off the train with the very devil pursuing her.