With its towering evergreens and breathtaking mountain views, Seward Island is a lovely, quiet community in the heart of the Puget Sound. But while a rustic sign welcomes travelers with the motto "A good place to visit - a great place to raise a family," Seward has suffered an inexplicable tragedy. A fifteen-year-old girl from the Island's most prominent family has been found brutally slain. It is a case that will start longtime resident Ginger Earley, a young, earnest detective, on a complex journey that will challenge her professionalism and her conscience. For Ginger and the police department, led by Ruben Martinez, a battle-weary, Mexican-born chief, the murder is baffling and frustrating. After months of exploring the life and death of Tara Breckenridge, Ginger and Ruben finally get what they need most: a suspect. He is an outspoken, liberal high school teacher who came to Seward from the East. He is also - and this is rare for Seward - a Jew. While building the case against Jerry Frankel, Ginger begins a relationship with Ruben that is at once forbidden and exhilarating. And as her personal life collides with her job as a detective, Ginger begins to have serious doubts about the work she is doing on the Breckenridge murder. Is she the heroine of Seward island - or part of a terrible rush to judgment? What is more important: to follow the explicit and implicit rules of a police officer or to obey the dictates of conscience she feels as a human being? And when and how does a community gather so much momentum against one man that the truth can be totally obscured?
