When a young man witnesses the rescue of a woman's body from the ocean, he is shocked to recognize the tattoo on her shoulder as belonging to his prospective fiancé, Sarah. Traumatized, he flees the scene, unaware of the ensuing homicide investigation into the suspicious drowning and its findings.

Having arranged his business schedule hoping for a reconciliation following their disagreement in England, he had planned on proposing to Sarah during her visit to Vancouver Island. Devastated by her loss, he relocates to Germany, committing to a life without his soulmate. Struggling with grief, he is persistently tormented by the circumstances of her death and how her body came to be floating off Vancouver, more than 100 miles from her intended destination. Homesickness eventually drives him back to England, where he learns the shocking truth about the homicide investigation and the twist of fate that forever changes his chosen path.

As the story unfolds, it reveals the dramatic impact the deceased woman had on those whose lives she touched, particularly the man suspected of murdering her. The characters are tightly intertwined in this generational, multicultural saga of suspected homicide, enduring love, emotional trauma, and the fight to recapture those closest to the heart. With its roots set in England, Deadly Assumption is a tale rich in history, encompassing Canada, Germany, and France, and spanning the period from the years prior to World War II into the 1980s.