When Gracie McBride, the wild girl who left town eighteen years earlier, is found dead in an apparent suicide shortly after her homecoming, it sends shock waves through Starvation Lake. Gus Carpenter, executive editor of the Pine County Pilot, sets out to solve the mystery with his girlfriend, Pine County sheriff's deputy Darlene Esper. As they investigate, Gus and Darlene can't help but question if Gracie's troubled life really ended in suicide.