Once he was Sierra Lane, hero to countless youngsters in a series of B-movie westerns. Now, after two years in prison, John Ray Horn lives on the margins of post-World War II Los Angeles. His wife has left him, and, blacklisted by the studios, he makes ends meet by collecting debts for his old Indian co-star, Joseph Mad Crow. Then an old friend, Scotty, contacts Horn. He has come across some obscene photos, including one, several years old, of Horn's stepdaughter, Clea. Within days, Scotty is dead, and Clea has run away. Horn's search takes him from neon-lit ocean-front piers to wooded canyons, from rich homes in the Hollywood Hills to Central Avenue, the Harlem of LA, a street rich in jazz and corruption. But will the on-screen tough-guy hero be able to sustain his role off-screen?

Shannon Fairchild's life has spectacularly derailed. Shelving her PhD to clean the homes of the rich and famous, and spending her evenings in low-rent bars, Shannon rebels against everything her academic family stands for. But when her parents are tortured and murdered, Shannon is consumed by guilt and vows to find out who was responsible. With her mother's enigmatic dying words of Find them and warn them still echoing in her ears, Shannon is left to wonder who she is supposed to warn, and of what? Delving into her parents' past, she discovers a history of radical political activism linking them to a fatal bombing in the 1960s. And still at large are the two masterminds behind the attack, who have been deep underground and evading the FBI ever since. But Shannon is not the only one in pursuit of answers and, after being attacked by someone also determined to track down the notorious fugitives, and interrogated by the FBI, Shannon sets out alone to find the pair. What they reveal leaves her stunned and makes clear that Shannon's past — and future — is irrevocably linked with theirs. And so begins a race against the clock to find her parents' killers — before the killers find her...