When Becky McDonnell leaves her job as a feature reporter at the Boston News, she plans write a historical novel about the womens suffragette movement in the Granite State. She moves with her boyfriend, Sean, also a reporter, to the peaceful town of Lisbon, New Hampshire, to a house overlooking Pearl Lake. Once there, she explores Pearl Lake for inspiration and meets her neighbors, the Childers brothers. Becky is appalled when she hears the brothers she met have been brutally murdered just as Sean leaves her for a dangerous assignment in Iraq.

At her lowest point, Becky meets fellow reporter Elizabeth Williamson and begins writing articles together for a local weekly newspaper. As the Lisbon police reveal more evidence to the press, Becky, being highly ambitious, sets out to solve the murders thinking that Pearl Lake holds the clues she needs. Soon, she not only becomes a person of interest to the police but also to the suspected murderers. The motive for the murders extends beyond Pearl Lake to Boston and to Toronto but not before there is further bloodshed and a threat to everything Becky holds dear.