Jacobia Tiptree and her teenage son are used to their Eastport, Maine, home attracting more than its share of houseguests. This year Jake is hoping the plaster dust will keep them away while she finally gets her gem of a fixer-upper into shape - from doorknobs and chandeliers to leaky pipes and ghostly phenomena.

But when the charming and mysterious Jonathan Raines appears on her doorstep - and then just as suddenly disappears - remodeling the house becomes the least of Jake's problems. Could Jonathan's disappearance have something to do with his quest for a cursed violin - the one that local legend says was hidden by a long-ago owner of Jake's house before he too vanished without a trace?

Soon Jonathan's grief-stricken girlfriend arrives Down East, and Jake needs to strip Eastport's past of its idyllic veneer - before a killer paints her very dead indeed!