The New Hamburg water wheel was built to encourage tourists to hang out at the riverside park, but when a body is found hanging on the wheel, the bucolic life of the town is threatened. In an unlikely turn of events, the town's mayor becomes a murder suspect, something made even more threatening by the fact that it is an election year.
Angus MacGregor, the mayor's former class mate and newly retired and relocated ex-Toronto police detective is called upon to try to save the mayor's reputation as well as his job as he tries to unmask the real killer. As he travels around the region and to such far off places as Toronto and Vancouver, Angus meets up with an array of characters both good and bad and learns a lot about how small-town folk work together to save their way of life in a world seemingly controlled by big cities and big businesses.