Indian Palms, California, 1952. Vacationers come for sunshine and sparkling swimming pools, tennis courts and tee times.
No one comes looking for murder.
Gil Meyer's job as night desk clerk at the Indian Palms Resort leaves him plenty of time to enjoy the desert oasis and the tourists who flock there all summer long. When a consensual hookup leaves him with a dead body in his car, he panics and buries the girl he knows only as "Lois" in the silent dunes. Nobody comes looking for her, and the fateful night fades into his memory over the following weeks.
But Lois had a family and once they realize she's missing, the hunt is on. And when her body turns up in the desert sands, the police officer assigned to the search decides this might be his best chance to put away a notorious criminal for a murder that may not have happened at all.