Dan Novice is a retired police detective and his wife, Karen, a retired social worker. The setting is Mexico, with Dan and Karen arriving for a much-anticipated three-month vacation in the town of Curva del Rio Sur. Dan has always promised Karen that when they retired, they would travel as a reward to themselves for weathering thirty-one years of his job requirements: working late hours, weekends, and holidays.

Dan and Karen have been invited to stay with old friends, Armando (Army) and Eva, with plans of visiting tourist sites, eating out, and interacting with the people of the town. But it doesn't take long for the plan to be challenged when a prominent businessman, Juan Mercado, is murdered.

Local police chief and Dan's former partner, Army heads the investigation and engages Dan's assistance and experience as a detective in solving the crime. Conflict occurs between Dan and Karen when Dan is drawn back into the job he still loves, while Karen is left to fill her days.

As the investigation proceeds, red herrings occur as residents seek to deflect suspicion from themselves, implicating their neighbors and addressing personal grievances. Dan learns that Army's family members may be implicated and questions Army's ability to be impartial as chief of police. Simultaneously, Karen, who with Eva becomes involved in the restoration of a Spanish hacienda, begins her own investigation when a murder occurs at the hacienda and places her in unexpected danger.