The shocking discovery of a drowned newborn washed ashore on the banks of the Mississippi River forever changes 11 year-old Abatha Cox and Somerset Hills, the small Minnesota community she calls home. Lead investigator Arvo Thorson is the only person trusted enough to investigate the baby's murder, but he's drowning too—in a toxic cocktail of whiskey, vodka and gin—and his career will be dead in the water unless he can solve the crime. Christine Ivory, the brainy, fashionable and compulsively organized social worker caring for the girl has never been more intent on thwarting Arvo.