A duo, Steve Barker and Harley Copeland, are taking aerial photographs of the Nevada desert for a developer. Two shots have a blurry, red line across them. After the flight, Steve heads to Las Vegas for a break. One the way home, he is caught speeding through the town of Bates, hardly more than a post office and gas station/restaurant. Lacking the money to pay his fine, he is sentenced to hard labor at $15/day until it is paid off. A waif that the collection of residents are raising, befriends him. He leaves his dog Pepper with her when she helps him escape one night. Thinking the earlier red-streaked photos are unusable, the duo does retakes. The red lines are gone from the originals, but now show up on another frame. A third shoot leads Steve to deduce that they are signs of earthquakes about to occur since buildings fall and large rocks roll after the red streak version of the picture. It’s a fluke of this batch of film. The third day takes include aerial shots of Bates, that he did to entertain Angela. He heads there hoping to save everyone, especially Angela who still has Steve’s dog.