A fire spreads across a California hillside above the town of Point Richmond and claims the lives of two children. When signs point to possible Ku Klux Klan involvement, homicide detective Oliver Wright throws himself into solving the crime, but in the midst of the investigation, Japan attacks Pearl Harbor. Near the end of the war, Oliver returns to Richmond to find himself entangled in another difficult inquiry: the hanging of an Italian prisoner of war, the chief suspects for which are black soldiers who rioted after the Port Chicago Mutiny Trial. With the help of a black MP and an Italian POW captain, Oliver solves the mystery of the fire and of the prisoner’s death, and uncovers layers of deceit and violence that stretch all the way back to World War 1.
A fire spreads across a California hillside above the town of Point Richmond and claims the lives of two children. When signs point to possible Ku Klux Klan involvement, homicide detective Oliver Wright throws himself into solving the crime, but in the midst of the investigation, Japan attacks Pearl Harbor. Near the end of the war, Oliver returns to Richmond to find himself entangled in another difficult inquiry: the hanging of an Italian prisoner of war, the chief suspects for which are black soldiers who rioted after the Port Chicago Mutiny Trial. With the help of a black MP and an Italian POW captain, Oliver solves the mystery of the fire and of the prisoner’s death, and uncovers layers of deceit and violence that stretch all the way back to World War 1.