Davis Reed is plagued by the three A's: anger, alcohol, and anxiety. A former Charleston police officer turned private detective, Davis hopes to gain some respect, self and otherwise, by writing a book. His subject? The true story of a B-25 bomber that crashed on Cold Mountain in western North Carolina just after the end of World War II.

From the comfort of a mountain cabin in Cruso, North Carolina, Davis spends his days popping anti-anxiety pills, drinking copious amounts of home-brewed beer, and not writing. But when he discovers a set of keys on a mountain trail, he becomes curious and then obsessed with finding the rightful owner. With the help of his friend Dale Johnson, a 275-pound local deputy who is full-time ornery and part-time clever, and Dale's cousin Floppy, a motor-mouthed mechanic with a penchant for conspiracy theories and kleptomania, Davis works to uncover the mystery of the keys while navigating a world of small-town secrets, shady characters, '80s heavy metal, and murder.

But Davis has his own secrets, and even though he's escaped to the mountains, some bad business in Charleston is beginning to catch up with him. For an anxiety-riddled man looking for peace and quiet, he somehow stumbles into more chaos and crossfire than any amount of beer and pills can alleviate.