Ann Foster is feeling stuck in her small town of Traitor Bay. Her mother disappeared when she was young, leaving her in the care of her aunt and drug-dealing stepfather who recently died in prison. After she finds human remains on the beach while out running, a series of strange events soon follow.
The sheriff downplays the importance of her discovery, but still asks her not to talk about it. His deputy, an old classmate of Ann's, begins to act strangely. Then one evening when she goes to visit a friend, she discovers evidence of a violent abduction. Determined to find out what's happened to her friend, she braves a raging storm to track down the sheriff and his deputy who have also vanished.
In the course of her journey, Ann has no idea how close she's come to falling victim to Cyclops, a once famous Russian crime lord turned boxcar-mystic who has arrived in town to find those responsible for stealing from him. But he's not the only one who has turned up in Traitor Bay. James, her ex-boyfriend, is back from exile with some things on his mind, namely the money he and Ann hid a few years back.
Just as a minus tide reveals secrets that have lain hidden beneath the ocean's surface for years, the novel also explores the points of view of multiple characters. As the story accelerates toward its dramatic conclusion, more layers of each character’s past become exposed.
Ann is forced to face a past she's never known, sees for the first time the connections that still run deep through so many lives, the inescapable past. Her journey becomes not just a battle of survival for herself, but for the soul of a small town she realizes that she cares so much about.
