The narration is conducted on behalf of police officer Mike Hooligan. The book is divided into three parts Recoil; Suicide; Picture. Each part has separate chapters. The whole book is Mike’s story about one thing that turned out to be “nowhere worse” for her.

The book begins with Mike describing himself and his work. M. Born in the poorest area of ​​the city. Lived with parents up to 10 years. From 7–10 years old, her father raped her. On her tenth birthday, she found the strength to push him away. Her mother heard this, after which the girl remained in the care of the state. The reader can easily guess what kind of moral trauma Mike has to live with. But at the same time, she all the time mentions that her father continues to love no matter what. She studied at the Faculty of Criminal Law, but then transferred to the Police Academy. I just didn’t work in the police. At the time of the story, she served in the Central Police Department in the confiscation department. Before that, she worked in the slaughter department (killings) for eight years. For a long time I drank terribly, the liver almost had. Then he managed to tie (if at least once the end of the liver gets drunk - immediately to the morgue). Now does not take a drop. Lives with Reverend Toub in an apartment that they rent for nothing, since the apartment is next to the railway and at four o'clock in the morning a night train rattles under the windows (the first mention, the other two are hereinafter). Mike got used to waiting for the night train and then going to bed. There is also such a song - "Night Train" - she likes to listen to tapes on which there are different performances of this song. In one of the chapters, Mike compares suicide (and it is this book that narrates its disclosure) with a night train. “Suicide is a night train, swiftly sweeping into the dark. You can get there on your own, but much faster. You just need to buy a ticket and enter the carriage. Only this is a one-way ticket. The train will take you to the night and leave you there. It’s a night train. ”

One day, Mike called Johnny Mack (John Makatich), her former partner and reported the suicide of Jennifer Rockwell - the daughter of the colonel. Mike had to go and notify the girl’s parents about what happened. This business Mike did not concern at all, but she knew Jennifer from eight years. And the colonel once brought Mike, who had been sleeping, to his home, and with the help of his personal doctor (High Talkingorn), Mike went out with his whole family. Now, after suicide, the colonel, distraught with grief, asks Mike to investigate this matter. He is sure that this is her husband - Trader Faulkner - the scientist who killed her. However, after a grueling interrogation, Mike realizes that he did not, and this is only the speculation of Colonel Tom Rockwell. On this, everything would seem to end, but no. Still, although the police should no longer care about this matter, there are puzzles. So Jennifer had no apparent reason for suicide at all. She was an extraordinary beauty, smart, sportswoman (played tennis). She devoted herself to astrophysics, worked at some research institute. It was not arrogant. Fate gave her everything you can dream about. She was cheerful and cheerful, sociable and friendly with everyone. As it turns out later with her husband, they loved each other to the point of madness, while everything was very romantic. In terms of sex, everything was just OK ’. But at the funeral, Mike again pounced on Jennifer’s mother, Maryam, saying that according to the results of the examination, Mike took lithium, a powerful psychotropic.

Investigation again (it’s clear that it’s private). It turns out that:

A week before the suicide, Jennifer had to submit some huge work to the institute. But when her boss checked this work, it turned out that all the numbers in it were taken from the ceiling and now the institute was put in a very uncomfortable position. However, he did not have time to report back to her: she died.

High Talkingorn, the family’s attending physician, said that she was absolutely healthy, so that she did not even have a medical card.

With money she was all right. The bill is big. There were no debts.

Regular partner - Trader, but maybe someone else? It turns out she made an appointment with a certain verzil - Arnold Debs, but for some reason gave Mike the phone. So Mike came to the meeting herself. As it turned out, Arn saw Jennifer only once, they met in the bar of a luxury hotel, kissed only once.

In youth there were shocks. Some man looked after Jennifer, but there was some trouble. In addition, Jennifer lived in the same room with the girl Phyllis. She could not stand the stress, she began to go crazy - mumble and so on. She managed to finish her studies only because she constantly consumed zinc, manganese, steel and chromium, etc. But psychologically it was impossible to live with her. After studying, Phyllida left the city. But recently returned. It turned out that Jennifer was visiting her and somehow Fellida lost five or six tablets of stabilizers of the psycho-emotional state.

In the apartment, Jennifer found a forbidden book about suicide with litters in the fields.

Mike also met with professional body cutter Paulie Nou, who performed an autopsy on Jennifer. There were no lesions of the internal organs that could have been caused by the use of lithium (we can conclude that she used drugs for a very short time).

“Today I read an article in The Times about a recently discovered psychiatric disorder called paradise syndrome. And I thought: then you can not dig. This is exactly what Jennifer suffered. It turns out that this ailment makes the not-so-distant millionaires - movie stars, rock singers, athletes - look for trouble on their ass. " “Psychologists who have studied cases of suicide have previously expressed this opinion: the more terrible the method of suicide, the harder the blow that a suicide expects to inflict on her loved ones. Triple shot, as opposed to triple cheers. What a sober calculation. What an icy composure. She hurt alive. ” “I have nothing to tell Colonel Tom. Just a lie: the lie of his daughter. Sir, your daughter had no reason to commit suicide. She just had high standards. Which we did not match. " But in fact, when Mike called, she told the Colonel that his daughter was on the verge, she bought rubbish on the street for a year. The trader also did not go well - she had another man. Classical scheme, decay of personality. This ended the conversation, although Tom realized that something was wrong with Mike and continued to call. “So that's the end. All. I’m running off to Battery, there’s a drink shop on every corner ... "