During the month of October, Salem, Massachusetts is a pretty crazy place. And the closer you get to Halloween, the nuttier it becomes. The following week though, is the exact opposite. The empty candy wrappers have been swept up from the streets, the carved pumpkins on front porches have gone soft, their jagged-toothed smiles sagging., and most of the visiting witches and witch wanna-bes have left town.

Lee Barrett has returned for a second year to the teaching staff of the Tabitha Trumbull Academy of the Arts—affectionately known around Salem as “The Tabby.” Lee is pleased when student Hilda Mendez suggests a way to soften the annual after-Halloween letdown, and at the same time fulfil the history obligation. Hilda thinks it might be fun to get the city involved in observing Dia de los Muertos.

When some of the students visit a local cemetary for inspiration, they discover a fresh dead body sprawled atop a grassy green mound. Lee and her detective boyfriend Pete Mondello are drawn to the graveyard murder and a long-ago missing person cold case. As their investigation continues, her class’s Day of the Dead project turns out to be much different from the light hearted celebration they’d planned…