Aspiring conductor Cressa Carraway arrives at her grandmother's cabin at a rural Illinois lake resort, hoping to find some peace and quiet so she can finish composing the symphony she needs to earn her master's degree in Composition. Instead, she finds her grandmother's corpse in the lake.

The authorities dismiss the death as an accidental drowning, but when Gram's best friend drowns in the exact same spot, Cressa just knows something is off-key in this idyllic setting. Convinced that her grandmother's death was anything but an accident, she fights her instinct to flee and starts looking into things herself.

There are lots of people and facts to consider, from the self-important property manager and his brow-beaten wife, to their salacious son, to the elderly widow who may be lacing her home-baked cookies with a dash of poison. As the body count rises, Cressa doesn't know which will be finished first-her symphony or her life.