Jeff Taylor, twenty-five, is a former college basketball star whose path in life has been changed by an accident: he lost half of his right hand to a threshing machine. He had been prepping for the MCAT, but Jeff's chopped hand triggered a loss of confidence in his medical ambitions. He ends up working as a private eye for Sherman Investigations, a player in the underbelly of California politics. Jeff's boss calls in the middle of the night. He asks Jeff to drive to the cold northern California coast to bail out an old friend, state senator Allan Watkins. Watkins has been arrested for drunk driving and charged with vehicular manslaughter of a man named Joe Garston. While Jeff transports Senator Watkins and his wife back to their vacation rental, the senator forces Jeff to pull over at the accident site. Watkins makes a case for his innocence, claiming he's been set up. Jeff rejects the idea and simply drops them off at the cabin. But now he's curious. He starts asking questions around town. That night, he gets stomped. Rather than being scared off, Jeff sets out on a quest to find the truth behind the death of Joe Garston...