Los Angeles, November 1926. The city's new Chief of Police has all but gutted the Vice Squad; the mayor is widely believed to be in the pocket of the local crime syndicate; and the county District Attorney is curiously reluctant to prosecute wealthy and influential criminals. War veteran Avery Shepard has been restless since the Armistice, drifting around from job to job, estranged from his wife and unable to settle down to any one thing. He arrives in L.A. to search for his sister Kit, who vanished seemingly without a trace. After his only potential clue to Kit's whereabouts slips through...