Lily Moore has been persuaded by her closest friend, photographer Jesse Robb, to visit Peru with him. At Machu Picchu, they discover a woman clinging to life at the bottom of an ancient stone staircase. Before the woman dies, she tells Lily the name of the man who pushed her. The forensic evidence the local police find doesn't match what Lily knows. Lily hunts down the wealthy man who was the dead woman's traveling companion and discovers a pattern...

When travel writer Lily Moore joins a group of journalists for an all-expenses-paid press junket to Acapulco, Mexico, she expects sun, sand, and margaritas. Instead, she finds that the Mexican city, once the playground of Hollywood stars, is a place of faded glamour and rising crime. Even the luxurious Hotel Cerón, isolated from the rest of the town, seems disturbing to her, with its grand, empty rooms, ever-watchful staff, and armed guards patrolling...