Red sky lament

Hollywood in the late 1940s. The U.S. government, attempting to uncover Communist influence in the movies, is ordering people to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee. John Ray Horn, a disgraced former B-movie cowboy star, knows all about being an outsider. And when his ex-lover Maggie O'Dare asks for help for her friend, Owen Bruder, who has been targeted by the committee, he can't refuse. Bruder, a screenwriter, is accused of having belonged to the Communist Party. Horn needs to discover Bruder's secret accuser, but no one is willing to talk - in Hollywood, just a whisper can smear an innocent man. As Horn's search leads him to powerful figures in Hollywood and his own government, his investigation takes a sudden and deadly turn.