After Madeline Maclin, former beauty queen and fledgling private investigator, married her best friend, Jerry Fairweather, and settled into his old house in the small town of Celosia, North Carolina, she becomes involved in a mysterious death. Amelia Lever, an unpopular teacher at Celosia Elementary School, went on a cigarette break that turned out to be fatal. Grumpy, uncooperative Amelia was despised by the faculty, and Maddy suspects it was no natural death.

Then there's her latest case: Nathan Fenton has hired Madeline to help solve a riddle left to him by his uncle, a man who loved to play games. Madeline has a hunch that the teacher’s death and this mysterious riddle are somehow related.