After helping to host Tea for Two's first 'Teas around the World' tasting, Rose Young approaches the proprietor/cousins, Elaine Cook and Jan Blake, in distress. Rose's mother died recently, and in going through her belongings, she found a death certificate—for herself! What could this document mean? What happened when Rose was a year old? The cousins' search for truth behind this unsettling and reaches far beyond Lancaster, Maine, to a pivotal point not only in Rose's life but also in history. Meanwhile, as the town prepares for its Fourth of July festival, much is at stake in the selectman election. Can Rose's father, Clifton, win and preserve the charming character of Lancaster, or will greedy big-city outsider J. Eisley Segouri prevail with promises of big-box commerce? And Jan's son, Brian, makes a tantalizing discovery that might help the cousins decipher the story of the sapphire ring found in one of the tearoom's walls.