When Milo Forbes, an unsuccessful private detective from the crowded streets of San Diego, finds himself stranded in the backwater desert town of Cordoba, he’s reluctantly recruited by the town’s mayor to help solve some open cases: reports of a prowler lurking around the town diner; the disappearance of vintage magazines from the doctor’s office; and, most importantly, the death of a local skydiver. Much to Milo’s misery, he finds the eccentric townsfolk and old-fashioned lifestyle of Cordoba very different from the modern, fast-paced city he’s used to.

With a nine-year-old girl as his unwanted but determined sidekick, Milo’s investigative trail leads him to an ex-boxer who channels Humphrey Bogart movies, a town matriarch with a secret past, and the elderly, lemonade-sipping, telescope-snooping Flagg sisters. He also crosses paths with Felicity, the owner of the local boardinghouse, and romance beckons. But just when it seems Milo has solved the mysteries and found love in the unlikeliest of locales, the discovery of human bones and suspicious activity at Samantha’s boardinghouse threaten to turn his life—and the lives of every Cordoba resident—upside down.