Waxie Decampo’s life in Palm Springs is the best witness protection can afford- he lives on a budget in a single wide trailer on the bad side of town. His routine is interrupted one morning when a bullet tears through his first beer of the day. Waxie and his Federal Marshal handler Cogwell have 24 hours to find out if it was a message, a botched hit, an accident, or... a wakeup call.

 

Waxie leads Cogwell on a tour through the strange criminal underworld of Palm Springs- the shady bowling alley, the donut shop drug store, the sinister karaoke lounge- and gradually both of them begin to see the big picture differently. Waxie realizes he put his life on hold and stopped living when he accepted exile in Palm Springs, and his step-by-step revelation leads Cogwell to suspect something similar happened in his own life. Growth can be a violent process.