Meet Artie Harper, single mom, former Marine, and unfairly dismissed mainland cop. Forced to take a job as head of security for a Hawaiian hotel chain, she’s suddenly in the spotlight when a body is dumped at the hotel, and her underling is arrested for murder. When her libidinous frenemy, Detective Sargent Ma, lets on that he’d be eager to implicate her as well, Artie realizes she has to solve the homicide on her own.

Her only ally appears to be Katie Kyler, a Fed who never says exactly what branch of the government she works for, and whose interest in Artie is at least partially romantic. Artie must clear her man and avoid indictment herself, but she needs to overcome her tendency to get into trouble because she's not quite as tough as she thinks she is, and the shadow of her past, before she uncovers the forgotten crime that made more murder inevitable.