Mortuary cosmetologist Callie Parrish is thrilled to pack up her banjo and take off with her best friend Jane for a bluegrass festival on Surcie Island. A whole weekend of her favorite kind of music, Gullah food, and fun in the sun is just what Callie needs to erase the memory of being locked in a casket last fall. Somehow, she just can't seem to leave her work behind her.

Little Fiddlin' Fred might be tiny in stature, but he's huge in the bluegrass world. When his dead body tumbles out of a bass case on stage, the festival erupts in chaos. Local cops advise Callie not to get involved, but when Jane discovers a second corpse—and then disappears—Callie has no choice. Her sleuthing leads her to a widow too busy flirting to mourn, a fiddler too eager to fill in, and a water witch convinced he can find whatever treasures might be hiding under the sand, but she'll also learn that on an island, you tend to keep going in circles.