Fresh out of Vassar, irreverent newspaper reporter Alex Bernier gets off on weird headlines like "MR. SOFTEE SLAIN" and living in an eccentric university town where nudist camps and "conservative vs. PC" wars are the news du jour. But when her police reporter lover, Adam, is found dead at the bottom of a local gorge, her world suddenly turns as grim as an obituary. Certain his death wasn't a suicide, Alex follows clues that bring her up against a cagey university administrator, gay-bashing frat boys, and a charismatic medical researcher... while the increasingly dangerous trail leads her to a brilliant murderer waiting to cancel her story for good...