Meet David Mapstone, a recently unemployed history professor who has just returned to Phoenix, Arizona a town now brimming over--much to Mapstone's dismay--with rich retirees. To fill his time, Mapstone takes a temporary job with friend Maricopa County Chief Deputy Mike Peralta: Mapstone needs to look into old open cases and try to close them. But when an old flame comes to Mapstone about her missing sister, he is soon dragged deep into a forty-year-old case.