Roe Teagarden's life finally seems to have settled into a comfortable pattern. Her marriage to Martin is going well, she's back at work at the Lawrenceton library - and she hasn't found a dead body in quite a while. But then one afternoon her handyman goes crazy in her side yard and Roe suspects this is a sign of bad things to come.

She's soon proved right as Martin's niece, Regina, shows up with a baby that nobody knew she had. Then she disappears, leaving behind the child - and a murdered husband. To find her, Roe and Martin retrace her steps from sunny Georgia back to snowy Ohio, where they find a nest of dark family secrets. Secrets which put them in peril . . .