Everyone loves Connie Mercado, daughter of a prominent local family. Everyone, that is, except whoever pushed her off the cliff into the Pacific Ocean, ruining a perfect June morning and bringing turmoil to this small Central Coast community. Bella Kowalski, former nun, now an obituary writer for the local paper and an activist for nature conservancy, knows Connie’s murder had something to do with plans to build a profitable but ill-advised wastewater treatment plant on environmentally sensitive land. And Connie is only the first victim in what becomes a thorny scandal, involving powerful politicos, corrupt local government, greed, family secrets, and skullduggery.