Robert, a young traveller, finds himself in the small Ontario town of Sunshine, in the middle of a party at the town's wildlife park. A stranger he picked up on the way has given him a dirty yellow notebook and told him to give it to an Alice Pedersen. But Alice Pedersen disappeared two years ago.

Six months before Robert's arrival, human remains have been recovered from the local shoreline. Stoddart Fremlin has been arrested on suspicion of murder. Daniel Barrie, who was having an affair with Alice and who left for England immediately after her disappearance, has unexpectedly returned. At the same time, Rocket de Witt, one of the last people to see Alice alive, has left town. And amid all this, there is a tiger on the loose.

The mystery of Alice's disappearance slowly unravels, at the same time revealing the dark and murky secrets of the inhabitants of Sunshine.