I've described this tale before, mostly because The Shadow Over Innsmouth was used almost completely in the opening of one of the best Lovecraft themed games, Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. While it has a different main character, the basics are the same.
A young man, celebrating his coming of age, has decided to take a leisurely trip through New England. While he isn't named, Lovecraft did identify him later as Robert Olmstead, so I'll use that as his name as well. On his way towards Arkham, Robert learns of an ill-reputed fishing town of Innsmouth. The population around the town dislikes the bizarre-looking folk, who all seem to have bulging eyes, bad body odour and sickly skin conditions. Even the wealthy people living there, the Marsh family for one, seems to suffer from these conditions.
After talking to the people of Newburyport about the rumours concerning Innsmouth and seeing the bizarre golden jewellery brought from there, Robert decides to make a day stop at the town before his departure towards Arkham. He isn't too worried, not even when he learns of the Esoteric Order of Dagon, which seems to be the local religious order. He is, however, a bit more concerned after he sees the driver of the ancient rickety Innsmouth bus, who seems to bear clear signs of the dreaded Innsmouth look.
Despite unhospitable locals, Robert does manage to find a couple of outsiders willing to give him the gist about Innsmouth. A young grocery clerk, sent there by his company, tells him of the town and a few bits of its current happenings, like the head of the Marsh family who is seldom seen in public. Later, after walking around the desolate, rundown village, Robert finds the town drunkard, old Zadok, who spills the beans of the horrors old Obed Marsh did in order to gain his wealth. Basically, he did a deal with Dagon and now the local-born Innsmouthians are fish/human hybrids, waiting to evolve into full sale fish people, hence the fishy appearance of the locals. The current lord of the town, Barnabas Marsh, has continued the practices of his grandpappy and has now turned into a full-scale Deep One.
Robert isn't one to put much stock on the drunken ramblings of the ancient mariner. Breeding with fish people sounds a bit fishy to him, but he's still happy to skip back to the town centre to catch his bus out of town. Unluckily for him, Robert learns that the old clunker has some engine problems and is forced to stay for the night at the local hotel. That night he learns the drunken ramblings were true.
Feeling uneasy, Robert can't get any sleep, so he is quickly aroused when someone is trying to force his hotel room open. Quickly, he escapes and witnesses the searching parties on the streets. Before doing what Lovecraft characters do best, faint, he manages to witness the fish people with his own eyes. After coming to, it's morning and he frantically escapes, informs the government and the whole town is dealt with extreme prejudice.
Interestingly, the story doesn't end with this climax. Robert now keenly turns to his family histories, only to learn that he is actually a great-grandson of Obed Marsh. As he grows older, he begins to see the Innsmouth looks taking over his features and soon he is beginning to dream of leaving the ground behind in order to embark on a new life under the waves at the city of Y'ha-nthlei.
The Shadow Over Innsmouth is somewhat of a different style of a story for Lovecraft. Instead of being full-blown horror, a good deal of it is actually based on action. While the beginning of it is more of a typical slow-burning tale of exploration of past sins, there's a turn towards more action-oriented content after Robert begins his escape from the hotel. The story even climaxes there, with the final part being more of an anticlimax with Robert learning that he is a hybrid as well.
For what it's worth, The Shadow Over Innsmouth is a pretty fun and surprisingly fast-paced story. The backstory and the history of Innsmouth and the Marsh family are well told and there's genuine intrigue there. Even the action parts show, that Lovecraft could write something like that in a pinch.
Lovecraft had a hard time getting the story published, as his usual channels couldn't quite figure out what to do with it. It was too long for a one-part publication and the climactic middle part makes it a difficult story to publish in parts. Later on, it was published as a hardcover book, the only one published when Lovecraft was alive, but it sold poorly.
Despite the difficulties of getting The Shadow Over Innsmouth published, it's now considered as something of a classic, that has been adapted several times and has inspired other similar horror stories. There are movies, games and comic books of it, more or less accurate. Some are set in the same time period as the original, some are set in modern times. Some are more literal, some take liberties, but generally, the main aspects, the stranger arriving at a weird town which turns to be a haven for ancient horrors, stays the same.
In many ways, The Shadow Over Innsmouth might be one of the easiest Lovecraft stories to begin from. Especially now, a good deal of the basic elements, the ancient deities and the fishlike Deep Ones are so well known, that even a reader with no specific knowledge of them quickly gets the gist of matters thanks to how popular Cthulhu mythology has become. It is also more action-oriented, but it also provides a good deal of more typical background narrative building in the form of the Marsh family history. It also is an important part of Cthulhu mythos, providing more information on how the Deep Ones function in modern societies, plotting their inevitable return as the masters of Earth.
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