The story begins with a news flash that a Gambler’s Special Turnaround bus has careened off the freeway in a dust storm on its return trip from Las Vegas to Southern California. Several passengers are killed, and one Grace Partain is missing in the desert. 

Grace is a forty-year-old school teacher who is struggling with anxiety and a workaholic husband who doesn’t have time for her. Her husband Philip is a real estate mogul whose only concern is the next big deal. They have no children and their life together is empty.

Grace isn’t a gambler, but she hops...