Boston, 1929. First, the daughter of the city's most feared mobster vanishes. Then an heiress from one of Boston's most powerful families goes missing. Both fathers turn to Charlie "Bones" Bohannon-who isn't a detective, just a shopkeeper with a talent for stumbling into danger.

Bones has his own problems. He's the disappointed point of a love triangle, and someone's running a smuggling operation straight through his store. With help from Punchy, a salty ex‑sailor, and Olivia, sister to the missing heiress, Bones chases leads that keep collapsing into dead ends. But one of those dead ends may be his last when a rival mob decides he's in the way.

To survive, Bones and his friends will need more than luck. They'll need a few tricks of their own.