Set in Las Vegas in 1950 where an A-Bomb test is planned. Jack, a World War Two veteran, runs a gas station with his wife Lily and his three stepdaughters. The family is visited by Lily's sister, Starr, who is waiting out the 42 days necessary to obtain a Nevada divorce. Jack, more devoted to his shortwave radio and local military rumours than his family, compensates his feelings of inadequacy and impotence by heavy drinking and by persecuting his 13 year old stepdaughter, Rose. DESERT BLOOM is essentially the story of Rose's growing pains in an emotionally deprived and politically naive environment.