To protect her cousin Petra, V. I. has been visiting Club Gouge, Chicago’s edgiest night spot, where a woman known as the Body Artist turns her body into a canvas. When a painter is shot, the cops figure it’s an easy collar—PTSD vet goes off the rails. But the vet’s family hires V. I. to clear his name, and the detective uncovers a chain of ugly truths that stretch all the way from Iraq to Chicago’s south side.