Dr. Jacob Walton is a clinical psychologist badly in need of counseling himself. His life is a mess. His wife abandoned him for another woman, his father drools and drifts in another world, his
mother wants to run his life, and his teenage daughter trains to be a celebrity. Even his patients annoy him, and he has taken to smoking pot to stifle an urge to scream at them to stop
whining. When one of them is reported to have committed suicide, however, Walton feels guilty. Did he miss something? He decides to investigate, and he enlists the aid of Teri Tarbell, a local
TV reporter desperate for a story that will gain national attention and save her from a career at a third-tier TV station. Their investigation leads back to a pharmaceutical giant Walton s
father headed until his mental collapse two years earlier, and to a confrontation Walton has managed to avoid for years. And all the while they are trailed by a stone-cold killer with exquisite
fashion sense, a fondness for show tunes, and a pugilistic concern for the environment.