A Cahuilla woman firmly rooted in her Native American heritage, Snowbird Jones is a UCLA graduate with majors in forensics and criminology. On the staff of the Santa Barbara Police Department, Sgt. Jones investigates the disappearance of a young college girl and learns there are 130 unsolved missing persons cases in California which have occurred within two miles of the Pacific Coast Highway between Mexico and the Oregon border. Jones becomes lead officer in a statewide police task force to learn the details of these mysterious disappearances. Yet there are no details-no sightings, no phone calls, no credit card or bank transaction records, or any other trails to show where this otherwise unconnected group may have gone . . . or been taken. As cleanly as if they had never existed, each individual has simply and mysteriousl-VANISHED.