A member of the Bunco squad introduces the Case of the Gullible Woodpecker. It seems that Woody wins a pot full of dough that con man Buzz Buzzard notices and sets his sights on stealing.
Murders, with victims dying from spines broken by brute strength, erupt in the city and the killers, when encountered, walk away unharmed by police bullets which strike them.
The main character repeats the destiny of many peasant women of her time. Her personal feelings were completely uninteresting to her parents, indeed they were always chasing after the profit.
Krestan Serbin, a 64-year-old Sorbian farm-worker, considers himself non-political. He owns a few acres, a few pigs and a cow, and intends to pass all this on to his daughter Lena.