Unable to stop herself from investigating another murder, Rachel Murdock gets plenty of help from Samantha, the cat who follows her wherever she goes; her much less adventurous sister Jennifer; and Lieutenant Mayhew, who is grateful to have another sharp mind on the case.

Miss Rachel, her sister, and her cat are watching with undisguised interest a bandy-legged man who is spying on a house across the street until a speeding black sedan runs him down. The sisters are curious to know why the man was murdered--and just as baffled about what happened to the mysterious tenants of the house, who disappear the next day.

Their investigations take Miss Rachel and Samantha to the small mountain town of San Cayetano, where she gets entangled in a property conflict that could have deadly consequences.