For four generations, Colby Ridgeway’s small family farm has eked out a middling existence in the Carpinteria foothills. It’s a good life, but Colby dreams of a better one for his growing blue-collar family, and he thinks he knows how to get it. Legalized marijuana has arrived in Carp, replacing farm subsidies with venture capital and worn flannel with crisp pinstripes.

But pinstripes play by different rules, and before Colby’s dream has a chance to take flight, a disastrous financial mistake threatens to cost him everything. Desperate for a second chance, Colby finds a group of investors eager to stake their own claim in this newly legalized wild west. His new backers have the cash, the political connections, the business savvy, and perhaps even the romantic spark that Colby has been missing. It should be a perfect pairing. 

However, when Colby discovers that his investors are quietly arresting control of his business, that perfect pairing begins to unravel. Colby’s quest to learn the truth about his shadowy new partners sends him chasing false identities, mysterious noises, and counterfeit prescription drugs until he comes full circle back to the darkest moment of his life. Because it turns out that the answer to Colby’s riddle is not what is growing in his marijuana greenhouse, but what is hidden under it.