Bobby Saxon lives in a world that isn't quite ready for him. He's the only white musician in an otherwise all-black swing band at the famous Club Alabam in Los Angeles during World War II --- and that isn't the only unique thing about him. And if that isn't enough to deal with, in order to get a permanent gig with the band, Bobby must first solve a murder that one of the band members is falsely accused of in that racially prejudiced society.

While the storm rages over California’s notorious anti-illegal alien Proposition 187, a young woman climbs to the top of the famous Hollywood Sign --- and jumps to her death. An undocumented day laborer is murdered. And a disbarred and desperate lawyer in Venice Beach places an ad in a local paper that says: “Will Do Anything For Money.” Private investigator Duke Rogers takes on the case of Carlos, the murdered day laborer, as a favor to his sister Marisol, the housekeeper down the street from Duke’s house. Duke must figure out what ties together Carlos’ murder, the ex-lawyer’s desperate ad and the woman jumping from the sign. And who is the mysterious “coyote”?