On a sweltering September night, Long Beach Homicide Detective Danny Beckett is called to a grisly crime scene at the mouth of the Los Angeles River: A defenseless homeless man has been burned to death by three teenagers with gang ties.

The suspects are already in custody, and the evidence is overwhelming—but when one suspect’s brother is targeted for murder, Danny starts to think there may be more to this seemingly clear-cut case.

Obsessed with discovering the true identity of the victim, a gentle vagrant who may have been hiding a tortured past, Danny and his team start to uncover a high-reaching conspiracy that puts them all at risk—and threatens to open new wounds that could cut even deeper than Danny’s old ones.