When a local teen beauty-pageant winner from a troubled family is found murdered in the beloved 200-year-old Seaman's Church steeple, Jacobia Tiptree, while preparing for an epic nor-nor'easter, must wade through the rising waters of gossip and suspicion to find the truth.

It is New Year’s Eve when the storm of the century hits northern California. In a quiet neighborhood in San Francisco, amid the chaos of fallen trees and damaged homes, the lives of three strangers are about to collide. For Quinn Thompson, what happens in the storm’s wake will bring down a barrier he has built around himself since his wife’s death. For neighbor Maggie Dartman, it will spark friendship at a time when she needs it...