1955. In the sleepy seaside town of La Jolla, CA, rookie cop Jake Stirling saves the life of infamous crime writer Raymond Chandler, earning the respect of his hard-nosed captain, Wade Lennox, who served with Jake's father, a police detective whose suicide two years earlier shocked the town and shattered Jake's family.

Jake gets called to the Hotel Del Charro, a luxury hideaway for the rich and famous. Budding starlet Zsa Zsa Gabor's diamond necklace has been stolen. She and other hotel guests-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, political wheeler-dealer Artie Corcoran, and mob boss Meyer Lansky press their own cryptic agendas, while Raymond Chandler provokes outrage with drunken allegations of police corruption. When a local hoodlum is murdered Captain Lennox takes Jake into his confidence, demanding loyalty.

More killings follow as Jake finds himself caught up in a conspiracy that could change the course of American history. Can he clear his father's name and save those he loves from the cold-blooded brutality of desperate and powerful men?