When LA cop Katie McBride almost dies in a shooting, it shakes her tough exterior to the very core. She's busy drowning her sorrows in a bottle of bourbon when her childhood crush, Sheriff Cubby Hawker, ambles through the door. The sexy lawman is determined to force her to return to their hometown of Lake Howling, Oregon, where he's the sheriff and everyone still thinks of her as 'that sweet young Katie'. At first, she thinks going home might help her get over the trauma she's experienced, but she soon realizes that she's just as hopelessly in love with Cubby, and he still treats her like his kid sister. It's making her feel even worse, so she's about to pack her bags and return to LA when a dead body turns up, and the sheriff asks for her help to solve the case. Is this Katie's chance to prove she's more than meets the eye, or has her chance at love with the luscious lawman already passed her by?