A body is found alongside a pickup that's smashed into the Pine County History Museum. A day later, the county tax assessor has an apparent case of food poisoning during a horse show. A girl is missing from school and the rental house she shares with her mother is deserted with nothing left behind but a bloody knife.

The investigations by Sergeant CJ Jensen and Deputy Pam Ryan heat up when vacationers find a teen suicide victim in the bathtub of their rental house. Back from retirement, Floyd Swenson brainstorms with CJ and Pam about the unlikely surge in Pine County crimes.