Hollywood columnist Meredith Ogden's home and life with L.A. Special Cases Detective T.K. Raymond and their three-year-old is uprooted when he investigates a decades old murder of a young starlet whose desiccated body is discovered in an abandoned house in California's high desert. Buried in a purse along with her is a crumbling note bearing Raymond's and another man's name. Investigating the murder, and how his name is connected, Raymond travels take him from the wind-swept desert to vintage Hollywood, glamorous Palm Springs, Mexico's cartels—into his own disturbing past. Celebrity journalist Meredith, herself, is suddenly faced with upheavals with the media bosses she serves, and the family's stability is further threatened as she digs into murder charges against a close filmland friend.