The picturesque breakwater extending from the shores of Victoria attracts tourists, locals and now a murderer. Journalist Helene Unger takes daily walks on the historic edifice as a way to beat the stress of work and single parenting. However, one evening, while snapping photos of a sunset, she discovers a corpse washed up on the lower pathway of the breakwater.

The dead woman is Lucy Marino, the curator of a museum dedicated to the 19th century Canadian painter Amelia Grayson. Driven to track down the murderer, Unger must contend with the deceit and duplicity of the art world. At the same time, she is drawn to the mystery of the unexplained disappearance of Grayson in 1886 revealed through letters left behind by the late artist, letters that perhaps have a bearing on the more modern murder.