In Midnight in Memphis, the sad thing about the present is that it keeps slipping into the past and then lives there forever. Burdett Vance, however, doesn’t buy that. To him, the past is continually trying to claw its way back into the present. You just have to do your best to put it to bed and keep it there. As a homicide detective, that’s how he sees his job, only things aren’t working out that way. 

It’s Memphis in 1955, where racial conflict runs deep, and a killer is reaping retribution for decades of lynchings by targeting the precious daughters of white Memphis. When Burdett is given the case, it seems eerily destined for him. On that same day he is assigned a new trainee, Officer Eustace Johnson, ostensibly just a token black beat cop and the Chief’s latest publicity stunt. But Eustace has his own agenda, harboring a vendetta against a murderer inside the Police Department itself. 

Burdett and Eustace forge an unlikely alliance as they strive to bridge the racial divide and catch the rampaging killer in a city already roiling with back-biting intrigue in the fight to control the crumbling Crump political machine. Fear, racial distrust, and age-old animosities escalate with each murder and threaten to ignite the city into chaos. 

Amidst this turmoil, an old flame Emmeline Bryce reenters Burdett's life, rekindling near-forgotten dreams of a normal existence. But that blissful vision of a shared future is imperiled when Emme becomes the killer's next target. As Burdett, Emme, and Eustace hurtle together towards an explosive conclusion, they must confront their deepest fears and darkest desires.