August 2019. Frank recognizes his own story of twenty years ago in a recently published book. He remembers Marie, with whom he had a relationship before she moved to the United States and disappeared from his life. He sets out in search of her and finds himself in a USA petrified by a heat wave and lost in suspicion and political paranoia. He heads into the desert in pursuit of Marie. On his way he meets Liz, the literary agent and Nina, a sex worker who services her clients in elaborate scenarios and films the encounters. Nina feels attracted to Frank in a strange way. He starts to work for her as a cameraman. She sometimes performs with another young woman who very much resembles Marie, prompting even more tedious fugue-state philosophizing.