LA in the 50's: Notorious gangster Mickey Cohen has just been put away for tax evasion, and now a bunch of his heroin is missing. Outside wise guys would love to move in on Mickey's territory; Captain Dudley Smith of the LAPD has launched a special squad to deal with them. Violent, thuggish team member Bud White's partner is murdered during a robbery at The Nite Owl coffee shop. The responding officer is rising star Detective Lieutenant Ed Exley, whose investigation intersects with that of Detective Jack Vincennes. Their leads point to Pierce Patchett, a drug dealing pimp whose prostitutes are surgically altered to look like movie stars. Nothing is as it seems in the glittering city of Angels, which, despite its open streets and warm welcoming air, is a city constructed of secrets. As Hollywood scandal sheet editor Sid Hudgens says, some things in L.A. are always going to be "Off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush."