Dragooned into leading a study tour of Israel, stay-at-home Samantha finds herself baffled by the participants' adversarial style of interaction. Most of them are employees of a computer game company with a recent hit, and they love vigorous debate. The ultimate adversarial interaction culminates in the death of one of the more abrasive study tour participants, evidently murdered by one of his coworkers. An attractive Israeli detective, Aaron Nahari, asks Samantha to help him with the investigation. The minister at the church where Samantha works, who compelled her to help lead the tour, told her he believed the tour would change her life. While Samantha and Aaron conduct the interviews to find the killer, Samantha discovers the ways her life will be shaped by her adventure. Readers of Dead Sea: A Novel have the opportunity to visit sites in Jordan and Israel with Samantha, including Petra, Jerash and Masada.