It may be autumn on Cranberry Island, Maine, but things are heating up for innkeeper Natalie Barnes—and not just because of the cranberry scones in the oven. When a research team discovers the remains of a long-missing German U-Boat just offshore, the Gray Whale Inn becomes the center of operations for the eccentric multimillionaire funding the team. But the excitement over the discovery is soon dampened when something else turns up next to the long-lost sunken vessel: the body of a young woman who went missing twenty years ago, tied to an antique anchor that vanished at the same time. Soon, a second, more recent body, that of a local handyman, turns up next to the inn, a knife from friend and island selectman Tom Lockhart’s kitchen in his back.
Natalie is dismayed to learn that several people close to her—including her husband, John, best friend, Charlene, and Tom himself—were connected with the missing girl, and may now be suspects in her long-ago disappearance. When Charlene’s young niece Tania disappears without a trace, Natalie fears that history is about to repeat itself.