In the late 1800s, young Edwin DesRosiers willingly gave his virginity to a beautiful young woman who had posed for his mother, Naomi, an artist considered to be something of a local character in the Vancouver Island capital city of Victoria. Then the grown-up Edwin—a police officer—is called upon to investigate his first-ever murder case, the death of the same woman. He finds his personal involvement both a help and a hindrance as he prowls the underbelly of the west coast Canadian city in a search through memories and todays and tomorrows.