While fighting through the grief and depression of her late husband's death, Charli has taken her hobby of photography and turned it into a job, freelancing for the town newspaper and setting up a holiday studio in the Oakie Doughkie Bakery & Gift Shop. During the town's Polar Plunge fundraiser for the children's hospital, the granddaughter of Oakie Doughkie's owner, Maddie, is found dead in the canal. As Charli spends each day with the family of the deceased, she uncovers reasons why Maddie would have committed suicide even though she's sure it's murder. On top of all of that, she discovers some of her great-great grandfather's secrets during a renovation of the Alton house, including a journal that has Charli thinking about his unsolved murder.