She's Gone is about Netti Quill, a young would-be romance novelist who mingles with waterfront mobsters in a naive attempt to acquire experience and atmosphere for her writing. She disappears from an island during a storm; and her wealthy grandmother, who does not believe she was "lost at sea"—a Coast Guard suggestion—hires private investigator Duff Kerrigan to find her. Several murders occur while his search carries him from a small fishing village on the coast of Maine to the sparsely populated north woods near the Canadian border, risking his life because the mobsters think he's investigating them, not Netti's disappearance.