Chad Beckman is running for mayor against a corrupt administration. He lost his wife of twenty-five years nearly two years ago and to pass the lonely hours turns to fly fishing. One morning he happens across Linda Strainer and the sparks begin to fly. Linda, a local artist painting a landscape, is disrupting Chad's fishing and he cannot believe she has to paint in the exact spot where he always fishes. The two hear gunshots and witness a murder in progress. Chad and Linda are thrown together by circumstance and necessity and their relationship turns from adversarial to close friendship as they struggle to keep their identity from the killers. There have been a lot of murders around Bay View and the local newspaper publishes Chad and Linda's story. The once tranquil Oregon Coast community of Bay View suddenly becomes a hotbed of crime and intrigue as the murderer and his inept accomplice search for the witnesses to make sure they don't identify them. Bay View has other secrets. A long dead body is discovered stuffed in the brickwork of a building after a suspicious fire. The building is owned by the corrupt mayor. Chad's friend Blake helped build the fireplace years earlier and is arrested for murder and Chad's best friend Blake may be the key that unlocks the mystery as to why there are so many murders in the small community.