When a body washes up on the shore of a harbor island, LT Nichols, Laurel, Maine's chief of police, discovers that it's the son of Laurel's most noteworthy summer resident, Randolph Grimes, the US Secretary of Commerce. The case is deemed too big for the smalltown Nichols. A United States marshal is flown in from Washington. When she arrests one of Laurel's native sons for murder, Nichols has his doubts. He launches his own investigation. A host of federal agents line up to shut him down.

And that's when the real trouble starts.