Maxie McNabb and Stretch have returned to Homer, Alaska. After settling in snugly to enjoy the approaching winter at home, they go for a last walk on the beach before it snows and meet a pleasant, if a bit enigmatic, drifter who has come to see the town Alaskans call "the end of the road."John Walker has no friends in the area and no particular plans, but the engaging drifter warms his way into Maxie's and Stretch's hearts, enough so that Maxie invites the wayward soul over for dinner with a group of her friends.The next day Walker seemingly moves on. But a phone call informs Maxie that he never got farther than his motel room, where he's been found dead. What looks like a simple suicide quickly grows complicated when the police discover that Walker never existed. His name is false. His fingerprints are not on file anywhere, and he matches no missing-person report.The mystery deepens as, caught up in the case, Maxie follows what few clues there are as to why Walker chose to end his life where the U.S. highway system ends in the waters of Kachemak Bay - and where Maxie just might meet a dead end of her own. Read Less