A police detective with a success rate second to none, but also a record of boozing and playing by his own rules, finds himself in the toughest case of his life when he's accused of initiating a gunfight at a crowded club in downtown L.A.'s warehouse district.
Suspended, Detective Mike Verlaine is sent to a rehab spot in Palm Springs – a stint he's unwilling to put up with.
Adrift in San Pedro, struggling to stay dry, Verlaine is rapidly going stir crazy when he's persuaded to help find a missing teenage girl.
But past and present begin to converge quickly and uncomfortably when people from different times and places in Verlaine's life – including his estranged son... an ex-girlfriend... an old nemesis... and the cops who framed him – prove to be caught up in a conspiracy ranging all the way from crime-ridden East Los Angeles to the swank enclaves of Malibu.
In no time a full-fledged mission of self-redemption is under way as Verlaine fights through corruption in realms high and low, facing off against the porn industry, the Mexican Mafia, the super-rich, and even City Hall.
