Actor Jal Persad is enjoying moderate success when the death of his mother, Rita, sends him into a tailspin. After all, how could he grieve a woman he barely knew? Rita had grown up in Guyana during the rise and fall of the Jonestown cult, but she never spoke of her home to Jal, always keeping him at a distance. After months of avoiding work, a misunderstanding at lunch with his manager leads Jal into a web of lies. He soon finds himself writing a memoir of his mother’s adolescence, one that places her in direct contact with Jim Jones himself. There’s just one issue: Rita never met the man. Suddenly, the book goes viral, and Jal must face the looming threat of exposure, as well as his own guilt.