Two months ago, Waverly Jones was given a reason to remain in her small hometown of Port Milton indefinitely. Her problem is that even for a private investigator who has solved several high-profile cases, her client pool in the area is limited, and there isn’t enough regular work to justify taking on the odd pro bono job—especially when strapped for cash because her agency is no longer a single-person operation, either. For the first time, Waverly has an assistant—one who is as much her moral compass as he is a welcoming face to those in need of an investigator. So when the grieving, working-class mother of Madison Simmons—whose body was found in the woods after the spring thaw—comes to them for help, Waverly can’t say no, even if the sliding scale won’t be enough to cover it. Despite the failure of authorities to look for Madison when she went missing, the death has since been confirmed a suicide. Still, questions plague her mother: why the sudden change in Madison’s behaviour before she died? What factors drove her to suicide? And could there have been another person involved?