On New Year's Eve, in 1923, someone walked into Mickey McFadden's queer speakeasy hidden beneath the Big City Little Theater and shot her and her dog, EZ, dead. Or sort of, mostly, kind of dead. Because instead of crossing over, they become trapped within the bar's walls. And though EZ eventually manages to wriggle his way free, Mickey remains, her spirit frozen in time.

In 2022, employees of the Big City Little Theater encounter a stray dog. When Ciara, the theater's bookkeeper, saves the dog from being hit by a truck, she begins to suspect there's something odd about the mysterious canine. Ciara and her friends happen upon the sealed-up speakeasy in the theater's subbasement—and find the dog inside. Their discovery launches them on the investigation of a lifetime, complete with an ancient murder to solve, strange occurrences to explain, and a missing person to find.

When Mickey's spirit begins to find her way out, she and Ciara finally come face-to-face. And it's more than the speakeasy's old wiring that makes sparks fly. Can they solve the murder and figure out how EZ returned to the world of the living before the clock strikes midnight on the next New Year's Eve? Because if they don't, they're pretty certain Mickey's time will finally be up.