Harry's stepmother Alice, calls him just days before his college graduation to inform him that his father has fallen to his death in their hometown in Maine. Harry returns to Maine to bury his father and help run his father's bookstore, and soon finds himself fending off advances from Alice and trying to learn more about a mysterious woman who suddenly appears at his father's funeral. Along the way we learn more about Alice's past entanglements, both romantic and platonic, none of which end well.