Pliny, Michigan is a town like no other in America. With the peaceful Iroquois River flowing through it, Pliny is a diverse but poor village built on the traditions of ancestry, marriage and inheritance in which the old families used to hold power and rank. Siobhan June is a successful author from an old family. After returning back to her childhood home for her great-grandmother's funeral, she is commissioned by the Pliny Historical Society to write a biography of the city. In her pursuit of writing a worthwhile book, she stumbles on to a murder mystery that awakens a deeply rooted ancient magic that is associated with the river, Pliny, and even Siobhan herself.