Octogenarian Willie McBride has gone missing and now his obnoxious daughter is pestering Albuquerque CPA Charlie Parker to find him in time for the big family reunion. Apparently, the eccentric old man had one driving obsession: finding gold. So Charlie follows Willie's prospecting trail to the modern-day ghost town of White Oaks--site of an historic gold rush, a bitter scandal, some ugly business and now a corpse.

The odd characters still lingering on here in White Oaks have few tales to tell, and Charlie discovers Willie was looking to strike it rich by claiming a legendary fortune buried in the Lost Dutchman Mine. Determined to link Willie's path with her suspicions of illegal drug doings in the deserted town, she sets out across the searing desert toward the mountains, prepared for anything--except murder.