Following the death of his lover, Brad Gray drifts from New York, wandering westward in a loose succession of house-sitting jobs. Lonely and desperate for companionship, he arrives in California at an empty home overlooking Encantado Canyon, a wildfire-charred valley near Los Angeles. One day, peering through a telescope, Brad spies the skeleton of another home being built by a young couple across the canyon.

Eventually Brad meets Ethan and Helen Zayne, and after some reluctance is drawn into their quixotic project. Working from a how-to book and sketchy blueprints, the Zaynes envision a glowing, light-filled home with a commanding view - but their true motives are darker and more interior. The three become fast friends; soon the Zaynes move into Brad's house-sit, by day carpentering and stone-masoning, by night swimming, drinking, and imagining their finished home.

The Zaynes are golden and beautiful, seemingly the perfect couple. Brad feels revitalized by their exuberance, until problems with the construction reveal deeper flaws in a marriage with many secrets. As California's arid Santa Ana winds spark the canyon, Brad and restless, troubled Helen begin a series of break-ins into other homes, escalating risks as they search for clues to the elusive utopia they both want to create.