After twenty years as a bond attorney at a prominent Los Angeles law firm, David Adams craves a more exciting life. He meets Stephanie Sanchez and is instantly intrigued; not only is she a looker, she's also an environmental lawyer with a background in archaeology. Stephanie agrees to join him in his madcap search for the fabled Pearl Ship of the Mojave Desert. Legend says that a lost Spanish galleon filled with pearls went aground in an ancient lake that dried up to become the Imperial Valley sand dunes of Southern California. In essence, Perry Mason has abandoned his structured life as an attorney for the thrilling escapades of Indiana Jones. Several individuals are impacted by the search for buried treasure. Juan, a Mexican teen passing through the dunes to find work in the U.S., stumbles upon a skeletal hand clutching a fistful of pearls. Roberto and Ramon, a pair of gang members from Los Angeles, take to robbing illegal immigrants as they cross the border, where they encounter Juan and his strange pearls. When Jorge, the manager of a wrecking yard in Mexicali, hears their tale, he persuades them to kidnap Juan and force him to take them to the pearls' secret location. David and Stephanie set up their dig site and events soon spin out of control ...