It's the Roaring Twenties. Prohibition is the law of the land. A rumrunner's boat is found adrift near the United States-Canada maritime border of Puget Sound, its crew missing, its cargo hold riddled with bullet holes and awash with blood. San Juan Islands Sheriff Miles Scott takes on a murder investigation with a list of suspects including rival rumrunners, temperance fanatics, anti-immigrant labor leaders, and the hatchet men of Seattle's powerful underground crime syndicates.

Fighting to protect the vulnerable population of his rural islands, and contending with a hidden array of informants and corrupt officials, Miles races against a killer who continues to spill blood to cover his tracks.