Former child actor Jarrod Jarvis has finally settled into a quieter life in his late fifties in Palm Springs—bit roles here and there, a comfortable routine, and a steady relationship with Secret Service agent Jim Stratton. His twenty-three-year-old daughter Liv, however, has inherited none of his desire for calm. A devoted true-crime podcast junkie—especially the work of rising star Beau Langley—Liv can't believe her luck when a prestige limited series about a notorious 1990s desert cult murder begins filming practically in their backyard. Jarrod takes a small role; Liv plants herself nearby and soaks up every whisper, rumor, and scrap of drama the production throws off.

Then the show's lead actress, Sydney Cummings, portraying the starlet murdered in the original case, is found dead in her trailer. The police call it suicide. Jarrod and Liv don't. Their search for answers draws them into the orbit of a sprawling cast of suspects: Hank Tibbitts, the legendary Hollywood producer who's built a career out of shaping other people's tragedies; Chaz Conrad, the brilliant, Ryan-Murphy-esque showrunner whose fraught past with Jarrod complicates everything; Melissa, a jittery makeup artist hiding old ties to the Rising Light cult; River Stone, the unnervingly intense actor playing the cult leader; and more than a few additional figures with motives of their own. As accidents escalate, lies unravel, and the past begins clawing its way into the present, father and daughter must race to expose the truth—before the killer decides they belong in the final cut.