When unemployed Phoebe Siegler learns that her best friend's daughter is missing, she sets off from Brooklyn to search for the teenager in rural California. In the dark heart of the desert, she encounters dropouts living in tribal groups beyond the reach of law and order. The only person who can grant her access to these former hippie communes is Charles Heist - known as the "wild detective." After Donald Trump's election victory, Phoebe Siegler quits her job at a radio station, feeling guilty about how things have turned out. When she receives a call for help from her friend Rosalyn, she flies to California to find Rosalyn's daughter Arabella. She ends up in a town on the edge of the desert, where she meets its oddly assorted residents, including Charles Heist, whom she calls the wild detective. Their joint search begins.