Boston-based private investigator John Cuddy takes on a missing person case of a different source. His client wants to investigate her new boyfriend. She desperately loves this man, but he is unwilling to discuss his past, and all of her efforts to uncover his background have come up empty. She wants Cuddy to find out whether the boyfriend, who lives in a suburban condominium complex, is indeed the independent businessman he appears to be. However, she is also concerned about "invading his privacy" and thereby perhaps threatening the relationship.
In order not to tip the boyfriend when interviewing his neighbors, Cuddy decides to make it look as though he is checking the credentials and references of the management company which runs the complex. Shortly after speaking with the management company and the neighbors, Cuddy is roughed up by two men claiming to be "soldiers" of an organized crime family. Before he knows it, John Cuddy is thrown into a dizzying set of circumstances involving government protection agencies, the Mob, and the lives of the residents in one very strange condominium complex.