It's spring 1971 and Vera Kelly and her girlfriend Max leave Brooklyn for an emergency visit to Max's estranged family in LA. Max's parents are divorcing - her father is already engaged to a much younger woman under the sway of an occultist charlatan and her mother has left their estate with no indication of return. Max prepares for the trip with equal parts dread and anger. Upon arriving Vera is shocked by the size and extravagance of the Comstock estate while Max attempts to navigate her father and the occultist St. James who is charming but appears to be siphoning family money. Tensions boil over when Max threatens to alert her mother - and her mother's lawyers - to St. James and her father's plans for using marital assets. The next morning when Vera wakes up Max is gone . . .

Part of the Vera Kelly series.