The Derelict Light takes place in Prohibition-era Astoria, Oregon, a bleak and rain-soaked fishing town where violence and vice have found a home at the edge of the continent. After the Great War the city is awash in strife: civic leaders stoking economic ambitions, Finnish socialists gunning for a revolution, gamblers and boozers operating outside the law, and salmon fishermen just trying to survive the most dangerous river on the West Coast. Then comes the Ku Klux Klan in search of fresh recruits.

When a fire destroys most of the city, and a body is found hanging from the docks, the city tears at its seams. Lines are drawn, and influence wields violence. Inspired by historical events, The Derelict Light explores a Pacific Northwest town in the grips of catastrophe, caught in a bitter struggle between progress, greed, and human frailty.