When Rachel, a radio personality, discovers a Purple Heart at a garage sale she decides to find out its history. She finds that the medal belonged to a man named Harlan Erickson, a long-lost brother of the town's leading citizen.

Local radio host Rachel/Geneviève Bujold is doing a series on local heroes. So when she comes across a Purple Heart medal (Vietnam war) at a garage sale, she decides to investigate. The hero was killed 17 years ago in 1973 in San Diego. His brother/Tobin Bell is a big shot in town who doesn't wish to be interviewed. A driver, who was left for dead after having his head bashed, is paroled from prison 17 years later for a crime, he doesn't remember committing. The amnesiac parolee/Stacy Keach meets Rachel as, from the fog of his past, he somehow feels connected to the story. Rachel meets a lot of resistance in town but she doesn't give up easily when she has her mind set on a story.—Scott Filtenborg