The Diehard begins in Indian Village, an exclusive enclave in Mulheisen's crumbling Detroit precinct, when a gorgeous young heiress is shot and stabbed, apparently during a robbery, and expires on a neighbor's doorstep. Her husband was the only executive of Fidelity Trust Insurance to escape blame for an embezzlement scandal worth some $20 million. But what is the connection, where is the money, and who is the suntanned stranger who is tracking down the same leads, one step ahead of Mulheisen?