In 1973, Ethel Koontz is impatient to begin a career as a newspaper reporter far away from her tiny fishing village of Piney Bluffs, Maine. Raised by her father, Eddy, since her mother died in childbirth, Ethel always wondered if she inherited her independent spirit from the mother she never knew. She strains against the warm confines of her father, Miss Ruthie and her confection-filled bakery, Andy the creator of blue plate specials at the diner, and Caleb, the editor of the Piney Bluffs Bugle who dangles the bait of a job to make her stay in town. None of these lures can hook Ethel until a faraway stranger arrives for her best friend's wedding and makes Piney Bluffs his home and Ethel his wife. She resigns herself to the job at The Bugle but, with her investigative nature, nets a local story worthy of big-time journalism, one that threatens to change the very character of the town. She strips the facade of fishing celebrity Norman Williams to reveal his predator motives. It will take all the people of Piney Bluffs and a host of others to reel in Norman to justice and restore peace to Piney Bluffs.