For Kathryn Ardleigh and her newly Lorded husband Charles, a seaside holiday in Rottingdean is a needed rest. The cozy hamlet is built on a labyrinth of hundred-year-old tunnels that once were used by smugglers. But when a coast guard's body is found on the beach, the town is suspected to plying its illicit trades of the past. And with the help of a young writer named Rudyard Kipling, they're about to discover something rotten in Rottingdean...