It is the end of 1924 and Eddie Brooks is freshly graduated, unemployed, and frankly, slightly suicidal. A gossip-reporting position is far from what he needs, yet it becomes an obsession when assigned to an intoxicating case: Barbie Bell. As he dives further into the entity that is Barbie - a widowed starlet whose husband's death remains a mystery - lies and deceit escalate, bodies are discovered, fingers pointed, and blood begins to be shed.