Loveless in Tucson, one screwup In the high-stakes world of big city journalism buries Zee's ambitions under a cascade of setbacks that hide a bright and shiny silver lining - a Latina ingenue as beautiful as her name, Cochineal Munoz, whose sultry dance moves and hypnotic eyes hold the key to a love that has eluded them both.

SYNOPSIS:

"This script is indie gold," writes the Black List, "clearly a screenwriting triumph!" (review available upon request) What prompts such dizzying accolades? Meet Zee, a hot shot photojournalist in a fierce urban media market who has it all goin’ on; he's funny, well-liked, good looking with a winning smile and great teeth, he's dauntless on assignment and a gifted musician who side-hustles a mean tenor sax in local jazz clubs. Zee's ice blue Nordic eyes and jet black Shoshone hair stop people in their tracks while his urban Indian-Viking personality navigates the perils of big city journalism with verve. Mostly. Because it turns out that Saturday Night Fever swagger camouflages dents in his shiny armor; a nagging little 'firewater' problem, a not-so-promising history of ego-bashing with local cops, a dying mother, a father who went MIA in Vietnam, and – now - a defamation lawsuit resulting from misidentifying an innocent woman in a felony bust of a pit-bull ring. Bright days turn to night. While Zee licks his wounds at his favorite haunt, Dream Street, a new girl catches his eye. And he, hers, in a feverish connection that isn't as accidental as it seems. Their first encounters are bumpy and provisional, perhaps because the lawsuit and a 'busted relationship' with a local TV anchorwoman have thrown Zee off-balance; perhaps because Cochineal - this new girl - knows something Zee doesn't; or perhaps because his once soaring career is on ice. Their tryst blossoms nevertheless -"we're all mortals until the first kiss" - against stormy skies of legal pressure, professional betrayals, and his mother's death. Cochineal is unfazed. She knows what Zee is made of, so at the darkest moment in the storm she throws him a rope. Grabbing it, he discovers the astonishing secrets that were weaving his fate together with Cochineal's long before they ever met.