A young man, relatively new to Fox Creek and living with his elderly grandmother, is discovered dead in his bed after having been severely beaten. Unfortunately, the first person to see the body is Carver Ellis; and the first police officer on the scene is already convinced that young Ellis not only found the body but murdered the victim.

It's up to Victoria Sears and her new best friend from down-mountain, Lynn Hanson, to work hand-in-hand with Chief Deputy Richard Wroten not only to clear Ellis of any complicity in the death, but to join together a tortuous series of clues to uncover precisely how and why Eric Johansson died.

Can they do it before a crucial piece of evidence disappears?