It's 1983 in Coachella Valley and Yolanda Ramfrez, a lowly phlebotomist at the Palm Springs hospital, has a hunch. Gay men, hemophiliacs, and tony women crisscrossed by cosmetic surgery scars are dying. Safe blood, like the plentiful water coursing through this verdant desert, is a lie. Will anybody listen to Yo?

In the nearby trailer, Isabel Ochoa Dreyfus disappears with her baby into a new identity: Marina Lomas. Somewhere in Iowa her businessman husband sits in the dark, staring at a tumbler of scotch, promising never to hit her again, if only he can track her down. Despite herself, Marina finds companionship at Mac and Gil's annual Casa Diva fashion show. As glamorous men stride up and down a pool-side runway awash in pink and gold lights, Yo awakens Marina's sleeping desire.

Elsewhere in Coachella, Yo's father Crescencio, a gardener, soothes Eliana Townsend, his secret love, by coaxing life from the earth outside her window. She is dying, most likely from AIDS, but no one will tell her the truth. And through it all Crescencio's sister, Tia Josie, keeps the family steady with wisdom from the Rockford Files and her dead Cahuilla husband.