The cat who swallowed more than a canary …

A lifetime of craving cuddlier companionship than her hectoring mother has led fortyish Bettina Bilby to board her neighbors’ felines—an expectant tabby, a pampered blue-eyed Balinese, a depressed ginger Persian with a cod-liver-oil addiction, and Adolf, an imperious mouser with a patchwork face—for a long holiday weekend.

But a freak storm sets the pigeon among the cats: a carrier bird downed on the doorstep with a tiny load of large, flawless diamonds. And Bettina’s dilemma escalates as Adolf gobbles up one of the gems and a succession of elegant but shifty strangers prowl the gardens, offending the cats and bringing in their wake backdoor bloodshed and murder.