When a hiker near Ithaca stumbles across an old skeleton buried with a rusty buttonhook and a locket full of pictures, Senior Investigator Frank Conley of the New York State Police knows he's looking at a tough case. What he doesn't expect is having to solve his own aunt's murder.

In 1916, when high-society debutante Libbie Morgan decided to balance her time between Ithaca's rich-but-dull golden boy and a heart-poundingly handsome farm boy, she unknowingly launched an ever-widening web of deception and jealousy.

Frank must peel away layers of history as he deals with his own demons and races against time to find the answer before his mother goes to the grave never knowing the truth about her sister. With the help of the town historian and an attractive aspiring writer, can he piece together a seventy-year- old mystery and discover how love ended up bleeding in a shallow grave?