Mike Hammer, the ""private jingle"" who- while battered- still gets around, tries to find and save Velda, his secretary and the girl he loved, from an unidentified assassin with only code name- The Dragon. Velda's disappearance, after the brutal killing of a client, ties in whit the earlier of a Senator, the current murder of a Federal Agent, a subversive organization, and leads to and away from a still more lethal lure.... Hemorrhagle an ever- but there is that pace and propulsion.