Baltimore, 1966. When Maddie Schwartz, having recently left her husband of over 20 years, helps Baltimore police find a murdered girl, her assistance leads to a job at the city's afternoon newspaper. Working at the newspaper offers Maddie the opportunity to make her name, and she has found just the story to do it: a missing woman whose body was discovered in the a city park lake. Cleo Sherwood was a young African-American woman. No one seems to know or care why she was killed except Maddie and the dead woman herself. Maddie's going to find the truth about Cleo's life and death. Cleo's ghost, privy to Maddie's poking and prying, wants to be left alone.