Travel writer Carmel McAlistair is the newest resident in St. Jude Without, a small community on the coast of Newfoundland. She meets her neighbors, visits the local bar (which occupies an abandoned church), and is quickly smitten by a local fisherman. Unfortunately, Carmel's new home is soon under siege by the local press, when the local premier's brother is found dead on a beach. And, it soon becomes clear that his death is not an accident when the police investigator reveals that the victim's throat was sliced by a type of knife used by fishermen known as a "cut-throat." Other signs point to the killer being a local, and Carmel immediately begins to rethink the residents she has so recently encountered--now as potential murderers. No one liked the victim as he was trying to sell the land that they all considered sacred. But which one actually wielded the "cut-throat" knife? Carmel is determined to find out, and her efforts may just lead her into more danger than she could imagine.