Ziggy Breener, the town eccentric, has pedaled his decrepit bicycle around Burnt Cove, Maine for nearly a decade, picking up empty cans and bottles for the deposit. In all that time, he has avoided talking about his previous life, being satisfied to live in a one-room shack amidst a rag-tag collection of junk and livestock. The fact is that few people notice Ziggy riding the roads, and those who do have little interest in where he came from. All that changes when "The Can Man" inherits a valuable piece of waterfront land on the prestigious Squirrel Point Road. Sadly, his newfound wealth brings with it newfound enemies, and worse, old enemies from his past as well. When Ziggy is nearly killed, amateur sleuths Sarah Cassidy and Oliver Wendell step in to help, but who is the real Ziggy Breener? He won't give them a straight answer, and it turns out that unraveling their friend's tortured past is a dangerous job, especially when powerful people are out to give Ziggy the gift of death for Christmas.