When her stepfather dies, Emily Gray returns from the big city of Manhattan to the small town in Maine where she grew up. Her mother has decided to sell the cottage that she raised Emily in, and Emily volunteers to get the cottage ready for sale. But when she returns to the town after never looking back for over a dozen years, things start to fall into place and happy memories arise. Unfortunately, along with the warming memories also come the grueling thoughts of her stepfather; who she'd tried to block from her mind all this time. Despite the dreadful thoughts Emily and her high school sweetheart, Nate, have found each other and think they still may have feelings for each other. One day Nate is delivering mail, just as he does every day, but this time he takes Emily along promising to drop her off at her cabin that's also on the island. Things get complicated when they find the old man who lives on the far side of the island lying dead on his wood floor with blood pooling around him. And when the police announce it's a homicide investigation, Nate and Emily will stop at nothing to solve the mystery of the old man's death. There are two other mysteries that accompany the first mystery. They read as a series but with different mysteries, just in the same book, and follow the same characters in the same setting.