With Halloween rapidly approaching, retired bureaucrat Chris Landrum would like nothing more than for his least favorite holiday to skip his adopted hometown of Folly Beach, South Carolina. The hopes of a quiet October drifts away on the tide when Chris's friend, Charles Fowler, stumbles upon the dead body of a curiously dressed woman with a hatchet firmly placed in her back.

Along with a former successful stock market analyst, the keyword being former and an obnoxious ex-Marine, Chris is dragged into helping Charles search for the killer. A masquerade party unlike anything the beach town has seen brings out a hodgepodge of suspects and potential victims, all hiding behind masks. The amateur detectives must find the killer or killers before the dreaded spooky holiday becomes their last.