It is in the early morning hours on a rainy night, when the sound of gunshots is reported by a trawler crossing the bar from the bay into the ocean. Nora Brady, a detective with the Jefferson County Sheriff's department, is called to the south spit--that remote strip of land separating the Pacific Ocean from Williams Bay. Three murder victims, with no apparent connection, have been discovered near a lone campsite.

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The subsequent investigation by Nora and her partner, Sam Duffy, provide a number of suspects, but each one seems to lack sufficient motive. Their investigation involves the full spectrum of local life--from the seedier areas of town to those in the most affluent, in which the recently deceased Terence Markam appears to have been a major force.

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Hostility, greed, jealousy  or the desire to protect a loved one seems to drive each of the suspects to act. The outcome of those actions leave one to wonder if everything has ended as it should.