Carmel McAlistair is fitting in nicely in her new home in St. Jude Without, Newfoundland. When a skeleton is unearthed holding a partial map showing what appears to be a part of Carmel's neighborhood of St. Jude Without, a few friends push her to get a copy of the map from her new policeman boyfriend as they suspect it might be part of an old treasure map originally made by Captain Jeremy, a famous local pirate. As the police quickly dispense with the map and send it to the local archives where Carmel works, she figures she will just ask her boss if she can make a copy. Unfortunately, when her boss is found murdered in a basement storage facility the next day and Carmel is discovered sitting next to her body, covered in the victim's blood, all thoughts of the treasure map quickly fade. It doesn't look good for Carmel and to make matters worse, her new detective boyfriend is forced to recuse himself from her case because of conflict of interests, leaving her to the mercy of the local constabulary's most notoriously vicious investigator. But all is not lost, particularly Carmel's job and she returns to work to track down both the map and the killer--assuming she doesn't become the next victim.