Retirement should be a walk in the park, but Trina Scotsdale finds her quaint life turned upside down after she discovers a skeleton in Point Washington State Park soon after moving back to her parents' beach bungalow in the picturesque coastal community of Grayton Beach, Florida. The discovery jars long-buried memories, awakening in Trina a compulsion to assist in the identification of the victim. Inner demons stirred by digging into the past collide with the present-day investigation, turning Trina's quest to solve the mystery into a journey of self-discovery. As the identity of the victim comes into focus, Trina finds herself in a Panhandle predicament.

A well-known local artist is found dead in his studio, impaled by the sculpture he created for the prestigious Underwater Museum of Art. Recent retiree, Trina Scotsdale, is as curious as the rest of the crowd assembled outside the crime scene, but she has something no one else there does — a connection with local law enforcement. Having recently helped solve a decades-old case (The Panhandle Predicament), Trina again feels compelled to use her local connections and penchant for attention to detail to see what she can discover. As the list of possible suspects and motives quickly lengthens, it becomes apparent that being well-known does not necessarily mean well-liked. But as Trina tries to puzzle out who killed their picturesque coastal Florida community's Panhandle Picasso, is she making crucial connections or crippling's assumptions.