Spanning a quarter century, A Moth to Flame tells the story of two sisters, Lydia-and Jessica Barrett, found, dead, at the bottom of a ravine in 1991 after a protest in support of a recently fired, popular teacher.
Twenty-five years later, Lydia, who suffers from nyctophobia (a fear of the night), is a coroner's investigator on the graveyard shift in Los Angeles. Her mentor Maureen Gearon is grooming Lydia to take over as county M.E. If Lydia can conquer her fear of the dark. As the sun rises on L.A., Lydia lands a case: a woman's neck has been broken like her sister's. Checking a missed voicemail, Lydia finds a missed message from the dead woman claiming to have information about Jess.
Revisiting her sister's accident, Lydia uncovers a true-crime program, Night Shade, hosted by oddball former classmate Shane Ellet, AKA "the Moth," who maintains Jess' death wasn't an accident. Caught in the cauldron of lies and deception are Cam Rawls, Jess' ex and current hometown sheriff; Brad Pearce, heartthrob sexual predator teacher; and a recovering addict named Mark Burns, formerly employed by Richard Fontaine, Mom Gloria's boyfriend slash handyman, forever lurking in the background... As Lydia digs deeper, a wildfire breaks out, scorching the land, threatening to burn it all to ash before Lydia can learn the harrowing truth.