Small-town general store owner Elizabeth Bentley's husband has been found dead aboard his fishing boat. Mummified. After less than two days at sea. With a golden something shoved down his throat and the corpse of a beautiful local girl stuffed in the cabin. The golden something, Elizabeth soon discovers, is a key that can open any door, no matter the type or size of the lock. This revelation-- something wondrous, something magical-- combined with the mysterious death of her husband, pulls her into a mystery that will shatter her isolated fishing village on Puget Sound. The deeper Elizabeth dives into the mystery, the more the key distorts reality, causing hallucinations and playing up small-town paranoias that lead to greater and greater violence. Trapped between needing to understand her husband's desiccation and trying to protect her loved ones from the forces unleashed on her village, Elizabeth will give up everything to unearth what's at the core of this mystery: the key's origin, her husband's death, and what he was doing at sea with another woman.

Eventually, she will open a door that leads to places farther than she can imagine.