Down-and-out ex-private investigator J.D. Fiorella is trying to get back on his feet. After getting mixed up with the wrong people on the job several years ago in New York City, J.D. returned to L.A. where he drank away his nightmares until hitting bottom. Now sober at 46, he moves back in with his mother in the Point Dume community of Malibu and spends his days attending AA meetings, strolling the California beaches and coffee shops, and trying to stay out of trouble. J.D. befriends Woody at a local AA meeting and takes a job with him selling used cars at a local dealership, catching the eye of an attractive co-worker. But just as things start to look up for J.D., trouble hits Point Dume.

When Woody is gruesomely murdered, J.D.‘s old habits kick in and he embarks on a mission of revenge. Recalling his years as a PI back in New York, J.D. begins to uncover clues to the crime and soon realizes that a string of seemingly random events are all connected. As J.D. finds out the truth behind his new job and his new girlfriend, he discovers he is on the path of a psychopathic serial killer with a strange connection to his past.