San Francisco police lieutenant Lindsay Boxer, the subject of a police brutality trial after a shoot-out involving two teens, retreats to Half Moon Bay to get away from the media circus and becomes embroiled in the investigation of a series of murders that puts her in mind of an unsolved case from her rookie years.

Recounts the bold but dangerous mission to secure America's position as the first nation to reach the moon, revealing the dangers endured by its crew and the ways the mission brought renewal to a country ravaged by assassinations and war.