Anna Cabbot is both a self-proclaimed ditchwitch and, by flat-lining during an unexpected visit from Death in cardiac ICU, an unwilling necromancer. The latter has her starting her new tenure in Buffalo with more side-eye and less friendship bracelets from the local magical community. Her first real friend - aside from her landlady neighbor - is a selkie named Carson who introduces himself by flopping out of the Niagara River onto her lap. Before that fateful night is out, Anna's a one-woman magical cavalry for the Lady of Lake Erie and knee deep in an adventure she didn't ask for. Nigel, the Lady of Lake Erie's brother, has gone missing. Anna's urge to help those in need has her - and Carson - diving headfirst into the mystery of Nigel's disappearance. First and foremost is a visit to the Bookkeeper, the top of Buffalo's magical food chain whose fingers are seemingly in every pie worth eating. They closest they come to the elusive Bookkeeper is Jamie Murdock, the hired muscle. Jamie's content to divulge what little he knows about Nigel, but he's more interested in Anna on a personal level, and Anna will have decide if her head and her heart are on the same page when it comes to her interest in him. And if that's not enough to deal with, Death keeps popping up at inopportune moments, and definitely not just for giggles. Anna's got more mysteries than she knows what to do with, and the few clues she has lead directly to the dark waters of Lake Erie and a bigger, more complicated magic than she's ever seen before - a magic she isn't sure she can handle.