Set in the beauty of the Pacific Northwest, the legend of Swanson Lake is kept by one man and he's not about to surrender it. When Bill's grandsons come for a summer visit, they stumble into a big-time adventure with a giant turtle named Mel. When Bill's neighbor Bailey tries to kidnap Mel in order to feature him in a proposed theme park, the grandsons plot to hide Mel from the neighbor.

Three detectives in the corrupt and brutal L.A. police force of the 1950s use differing methods to uncover a conspiracy behind the shotgun slayings of the patrons at an all-night diner.