Brett Baldwin is a Texas chef who keeps his life, his emotions, and especially his restaurant Mesquite under careful control. But, when Meridyth Morgan, a Hollywood star and Brett's high school love interest, shows up in Marfa, Texas, and begs him to help find her missing brother and then is kidnapped herself, Brett soon finds himself in a world of drug smuggling, human trafficking, corruption, extortion, and murder. With the support from his best friend Jud Garcia, an orphaned Native American who raises bison and enjoys smoking illegal substances, Brett embarks on a dangerous journey to reunite with Meridyth and must confront some unfinished childhood business that, no matter how famous he became as a chef, had kept him from truly becoming a man.