When William Halleck and his wife Heidi go on a second honeymoon it is party to take their minds off the worrying fact that Billy is losing weight quickly - and he isn't on a diet. It is also to forget. to forget the dreadful accident which killed a gypsy woman and put Billy in court; to forget that Heidi's excessive smoking and Billy's excessive eating have been a strain on their marriage; and for Billy to forget the frightfully disfigures face of the old gypsy man outside the courthouse.

But the second honeymoon is soon forgotten as the weight continues to fall away from Billy, no matter how much he eats. As he goes through rigorous tests and terrible strain, no cause can be diagnosed. But Billy knows. He knows that the gypsy with the rotting nose, and the dead woman, are at the bottom of it all. He has been cursed. And there is precious little he can do about it. Until Richard Ginelli the New York gang leader, his long time friend, comes to his aid bringing with him the force of another kind of curse: "the curse of the white man from town".
--front flap