When Rafe Khatchadorian is invited to attend an all-expenses-paid art field trip in California, he jumps at the opportunity. But things go sideways, as they always do for Rafe, when he arrives and realizes his trip isn't the Hollywood vacation he thought it would be. Instead, he'll be participating in a "Cultural Campout" in the desert. What follows is a series of unfortunate events that only Rafe could find himself in, including an encounter with a cranky crocodile, a claustrophobic trip into an ancient cave, and a set of ancient cave paintings that may or may not have been faked. To make matters worse, Rafe finds himself smack dab in the middle of a plot to smuggle a legendary missing diamond.