Junetta Beale is living in paradise. As owner of the Shipshape Bookshop in Southeast Alaska, she sells books in town, operates a lending library for the locals, and serves the villages in her floating bookmobile. She loves her peaceful coastal life.

That peace is shattered when she returns from her latest voyage through the Inside Passage. Someone has trashed her bookshop, stolen the town's historic treasure map from the wall, and left a dead body in her back room. Somehow, a charming newcomer's tale of his family history is bound up with the present mystery. When the troopers arrest Uncle Vance for the crime, Junetta knows the cantankerous old sourdough is no murderer. She must dig up the truth to prove her uncle's innocence before a killer takes her out of circulation.