The sea air still peels the white paint from the clapboard mansions and the penny candy store still sells one-cent gumballs. Manchester-by-the-Sea, a haven of venerable New England families, continues to send its sons to Groton and its daughters to Miss Porter's. Nothing, it seems, can shake this bastion of old money and cozy security from its reverie of the good life. Except murder.

A seasoned veteran of criminal investigations but still recovering from the sudden death of her own stepmother, Frances Pratt is relieved to escape to her aunt and uncle's sprawling house on the harbor. The occasion is the wedding of her beautiful and pampered cousin Hope to Jack Cabot, polo player and heir to a vast fortune. But before Frances has time to immerse herself in the familiar world of mismatched furniture and faded chintz, tragedy strikes in the most shocking way imaginable.

On the very day of the wedding, Frances is thrust back into her role as sleuth when she must unravel the mystery surrounding the astonishing death of a relative...in this bloodline that seems to have a legacy of murder.