The Edisto Invitational Billfish Tournament teems with fishermen, tourists, and vendors during a crazy hot July on Edisto Beach. Police Chief Callie Morgan and her officers know tempers are going to flare in the heat, and it doesn't take long for two vendors-both selling poetry-to take issue with each other.

Callie's close friend Carolina Slade and her new husband Senior Special Agent Wayne Largo have arrived as well, vacationing at a politico's posh beach home in exchange for security advice. Seems the politico has concerns about squatters. One of the poets, a beloved local whose homelessness is broadcast by his competitor, is accosted at the gazebo of Slade's rental. She takes the poet under her wing, but an attack on the poet one night escalates to someone else's murder the next. Shorthanded, Callie relies on Wayne and Slade for assistance, but friendships turn sour as they disagree on the who, what, and how.