The story is set in Vermont, a very small town near the border between the United States and Canada. It is said that the community is safe and that nothing usually happens that would require the police, but when a girl is found murdered, two police inspectors investigate the case.
All the inhabitants are tense, and within the families suspicion and mistrust arise, since many had the opportunity to commit the crime. Although at first it seems to be a teenage story (one of the protagonists is 13 years old), very much set in a world where adults are not involved, complications begin to appear that may be related to the murder: not only the movements of Diana’s boyfriend, the murdered girl, but also the school principal failing to follow child protection protocols, a case of harassment, and a killer hiding in Vermont… yet there is not enough evidence to accuse anyone.
In the end, the murderer is discovered by chance. The case is solved in a few days, which makes the book even more addictive to read, especially since, as in other works by the author, it is structured in short chapters.
This book does not seem to have literary ambitions. Teenage sexual relationships are presented as normal, and the authority of overprotective parents is called into question.