Professor Simon Shaw wants nothing more than to spend a peaceful Thanksgiving with friends, staying in Pearlie Beach, a small town on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. But even has the turkey roasts, he finds himself embroiled in a fifty-year-old mystery of strange disappearances, suspicious deaths, and treasures lost and found.

The holiday disruption begins with the body of a local man is dredged from the waters of Pearlie Beach. In his hand, several rare Confederate coins; in his decaying ribs, the sharp blade of a knife. Soon Simon, aided by Julia McGloughlin, a mesmerizing police attorney, discovers that secrets in this small town run as deep as the waterways that surround it.

Simon knows that finding another cache of coins is about as likely as getting the guarded residents of Pearlie Beach to talk. But he also knows that if he doesn't continue to investigate, a decades-old murder will remain unsolved--and another may be close at hand...