When Becky McDonnell leaves her job as a feature reporter at the Boston News, she plans write a historical novel about the women's suffragette movement in the Granite State. She moves with her boyfriend, Sean, also a reporter, to the peaceful town of Lisbon, New Hampshire, to a house overlooking Pearl Lake. Once there, she explores Pearl Lake for inspiration and meets her neighbors, the Childers brothers. Becky is appalled when she hears the brothers she met have been brutally murdered just as Sean leaves her for a dangerous assignment in Iraq.

At her lowest point, Becky meets fellow...