After disappearing for seven long years without a trace Charles Smithson suddenly reappears one day after he was found unconscious on a hiking trail in the Mission Hills area of San Diego, California.
He has a bizarre story to tell about desperate men who are following him and wish him dead. They will stop at nothing to get their hands on secret information he has in his possession.
When he ends up dead under mysterious circumstances there is a virtual laundry list of suspects.
Detectives John Carson and Charles Brown are assigned to the case and must unravel the tangled mystery that led to the young man's demise.