To reach the Barcelona Hotel you took Sunset and the coast highway. Once starlets and Navy boys had rubbed shoulders with tycoons and hustlers there, but for Lew Archer the old, closed-up palace held the key to a missing teenager and a hot murder. Archer knew that twenty years ago a handful of dreamers and losers had come together in the Barcelona. The only question now was what kind of deal had gone down there, and why a mixed-up rich kid and a beautiful blonde were the first to pay the price....