When land developers uncover human bones at the site of the old drive-in, Callie Anne Benton realizes that she alone knows the identity of the victim who mysteriously disappeared thirty-six years ago.

In The Starlite Drive-in Callie Anne recalls the tumultuous summer of 1956. Nearly thirteen, she's stuck at home with her parents during a long, hot summer in rural Indiana. Her father, an angry, bitter man, runs the drive-in, and the only time she ever feels close to him is when they're in the projection booth watching movies. Her mother is an agoraphobe who hasn't left the house in five years, effectively trapping her husband in a job he's grown to hate.

When a drifter named Charlie Memphis comes to work at the drive-in, the sweltering summer becomes more bearable. Both mother and daughter fall for Memphis's charms, but Callie Anne's father remains suspicious of his secretive past. A disastrous turn of events changes all of their lives forever, and it's up to the grown-up Callie Anne to unlock the secret of the decades-old mystery.