When private eyes Sam Blackman and Nakayla Robertson are asked by an eighty-year-old client to investigate the death of her brother, they warn her there is little chance of success. Paul Weaver died nearly seventy years earlier. The only documentation she has is the sole surviving copy of a coroner's report stating his death was caused by an accidental fall while hiking.

There's a red flag: Weaver knew every inch of the mountain trails. The returning World War II veteran had enrolled at Black Mountain College, a liberal local school with an international reputation for innovation. The college of the 1940s is currently being portrayed in a film being shot on the site of its former location. The plot is based on a book by a local author. The research behind both may provide a lead in the Weaver case. One is drawn from movie crew member Harlan Beale, an octogenarian mountaineer who knew Weaver. Beale is discovered dead in the Black Mountain College Museum. His murder turns the cold case white hot. When a second killing follows, the question becomes how to separate dark doings in the present from dark days and hidden scars of the post-war past.

Nakayla and Sam love their investigations and each other. An interracial couple in the South, they've surrounded themselves with a terrific support team.