The novel starts out with Stephanie Plum in the middle of Loretta Rizzi's apartment where Loretta has a gun to her head, ready to commit suicide. Loretta explains that she just went to get an alcoholic beverage and she couldn't afford it, and that's why she held up the place. Stephanie convinces her that killing herself wouldn't be the way to go, so Loretta leaves in cuffs. Just before they leave, Loretta, who is a distant cousin of Joe Morelli, Stephanie's on-again/off again boyfriend (currently on), asks if Stephanie will take care of her son, Mario, if she isn't bonded out by the time his high school ended. Stephanie goes to the office to try to get her bailed out, but no one can afford it so she stays.
Meanwhile, Ranger calls Stephanie with a job, Brenda (a famous one-name singer like Cher or Madonna), is coming to town and she needs security, so Stephanie reluctantly obliges. The typical Stephanie Plum chaos ensues as Stephanie is working with Range; Joe isn't happy that the two are working together again. Ranger, Stephanie and Ranger's assorted merry men help to protect Brenda from PETA protesters, women protesting Brenda's breast augmentation, and Brenda's cousin/ stalker, Gary, who's been dreaming about Brenda being attacked by a pizza since he was struck by lightening in a Wal-Mart parking lot.
Loretta is eventually bailed out. Everything seems to be going smoothly until Loretta is kidnapped. With the stress of that, and the added stress of taking care of Mario/Zook, Stephanie is given another bombshell: While asking around about Loretta, she runs into Dom Rizzi, Loretta's brother with a history of anger management issues, robbed a bank of nine million and then got busted. Dom is so pissed and he's ranting and raving and alleges that Mario is Morelli's son.
The book carries on, Joe takes Mario, nicknamed Zook, who has nowhere else to go, into his home and he and Stephanie take care of him while working together to try and find Loretta. Stephanie is working with Ranger to protect Brenda, and trying to survive Lula's engagement to Tank, Ranger's right hand man. After a while, Stephanie goes to tend to other skips and Brenda gets attacked by an evil monkey. Familiar faces arrive, such as, Mooner, the stoned hippie, and a new face appears, Brenda's cousin/stalker who claims to have psychic visions that involve Brenda getting attacked by a pizza.
After a few dead body discoveries, and crazy events, such as everybody believing that the nine million is stashed away in Morelli's house, life seems to carry on. But then Stephanie receives a pinky- Loretta's.
Everything's gone crazy, Zook, Mooner, and Gary (the stalker), build a spud shooter that guards against the treasure salvagers hunting in Morelli's yard and the hunt for Dom and Loretta, along with the man that kidnapped her is going crazy.
Later in the book, closure comes suddenly and clearly. Stephanie discovers a camera in Morelli's neighborhood and calls a tech guy to disable the camera, and see who might have hung it. The tech man arrives and it's revealed that he is Loretta's kinapper and the one who had been threatening Stephanie and killing everyone.
A chase ensues and eventually it leads to a garage, and the tech guy/kidnapper, is driving around in the van that holds the nine million and a set of explosives. After the chase is over, with the help of Mooner and the spud gun, the van is tipped over and explodes, killing the tech man. Dom finds Loretta in the kidnapper's basement, safe, with no toes missing. Gary's prophecy comes true, the explosion, which happened right near a deli, shoots out a pepperonni pizza and hits Brenda, who had been following Stephanie, right in the face.
After everyone has settled down the story ends at Morelli's house, everyone has newly bought items thanks to Mooner collecting hundreds from the van explosion and Brenda announces that she won't be returning to Jersey, she's going to do a reality show with her (now) great stalker/cousin Gary. Loretta tells Dom that Zook isn't Morelli's kid and that Morelli was in the Rizzi's garage with Jenny Ragucci when they were in high school, not her. Morelli says that was all in the past and he's a Cupcake man now.
source: Wikipedia
