Toronto is under a record-breaking heat wave in July of 1936. Charlotte Frayne is part of a two-person private investigation firm, owned by T. Gilmore. An anti-Semitic hate letter is delivered to Gilmore which Charlotte is left to deal with, and Hilliard Taylor, a veteran of the First World War requests the firm's assistance in uncovering what he suspects is systematic embezzlement of the Paradise Café, which he owns and operates with three other men, all of whom were prisoners of war.