Deeply saddened by the murder of Will Ramsdell, the retired police chief of Wisteria, Virginia, who helped her with her first investigative assignment, Abby Burlew, who suffers from bipolar disorder, heads to Wisteria to make sure Will's killer is brought to justice. Ignoring the likelihood that she will cycle into mania brought on by the strain of her investigation, she partners with Marty Stith-a friend of Will's who lives and works at Pinecroft, the mom-and-pop golf course where Will was murdered. Suspects abound, including Marty Stith himself, who Abby has reason to believe is orchestrating what she learns and when she learns it. Two of the suspects are murdered, and a third person, with no apparent reason for wanting Will dead, claims to be his killer. As Abby struggles to make sense of all this, she comes ever closer to losing her sanity-and her life.