Burned-out chef Max Effort—he still hates his parents for the name—is slowly settling into van life. Used to swanky kitchens and state-of-the-art equipment, he's even mastered cooking outside without the flame blowing out. One-pot cooking or bust was Max's promise to himself, but the joys of letting his dinner simmer for hours on lazy summer days are soon on the back-burner when murder rears its ugly head once more.

A relaxing walk on the beach with his best friend Anxious the Terrier turns into a total stress-fest when he stumbles across a severed foot poking out of the sand. The rest of the body is discovered soon after, and Max feels like it's his duty to help solve this puzzling crime. Trying his best to stay out of the way of the local detectives, the clues soon mount up, along with the body count, and it becomes apparent that nothing is at is seems in the once quiet coastal town of Abergele.

With his trusty Terrier sniffing out the clues, and stealing all the ice-cream, Max teams up with the local lifeguard to solve the mystery, but he can't stop pining for his ex-wife. When she arrives for an impromptu visit, the team are soon up to their necks in the carnage as accusations fly and an innocent man risks spending the rest of his life in prison. Can Max figure this out in time, or will he push his luck too far?