Unsubstantiated, explosive rumors have gotten back to a number of the largest U.S. movie studios that sexually-charged film outtakes destined for the editing room floor have made their way to the Far East underground. Whispered hints suggest the rumored outtakes are salacious enough to destroy a few Hollywood relationships, marriages and even a few soaring careers. When the release of a major sequel starts the Far East rumor mill humming again about footage featuring a gorgeous leading actress in scenes never meant for the silver screen, the Motion Picture Federation, which acts as a clearinghouse for all of the major U.S. studios, hires security firm Taylor, Racine & Associates to answer two critical questions: have film pirates in Macau, Hong Kong or mainland China cracked the studios’ security or penetrated the biggest film labs? Or are the rumors a pirate’s fantasy and a brilliant marketing ploy?

A junior partner in Taylor, Racine’s corporate counterespionage division, Cal Atwood is called in to unravel truth from fiction and shut down the rumor mill before the studios’ worst fears are realized: lurid and shocking performances of stunning actresses showing up on DVDs and the Internet, forever shattering all trust between studios and stars. Cal’s given plenty of resources to draw on, including undercover operative Reggie Harris, a self-described mutt who can pass himself off as a migrant trabajero from Guadalajara, a software programmer from Bombay or an African-American from deep Mississippi, and Henry Carmichael, an über-nerd whose legendary computer keyboard talents and ability to tease answers from seemingly random data evoke comparisons by his colleagues to Ray Charles’ tickling of the ivories.

Together, Cal and his colleagues are given the task of confirming or quashing the rumors, a task greatly complicated by the MPF’s insistence that none of the actresses who are rumored to appear in the film outtakes can know of the actual reason for the investigation. As the team races to find answers within the studios and duplication labs before outtakes may magically appear on-line or elsewhere, Cal’s interviews of several actresses paid $15 million and more per picture draw him to one starlet who’s been the subject of the rumors, an exquisitely beautiful Russian ex-pat and former model. While Cal works to maintain his professional distance and preserve his marriage, one of the actresses cited in the rumors is found murdered, strangled using a wire wrapped with a copy of the trailer from her most recent hit movie. The murder raises new questions about the existence and source of the rumored outtakes, and drastically raises the stakes as Cal struggles to head off what may be another murder in the offing.