Mattie Carrington is preparing to write her third book. Her first book (a cookbook) was a huge success and made her a relatively wealthy woman.

Mattie shares a house with her sister, Katie, who is fifteen years younger and divorced. One day Mattie and Katie leave for the grocery store and when they are just a few blocks from their home they hear a loud explosion. Turning the car around they head back home and discover the explosion has come from their house. There is a huge hole where the kitchen had once been.

Cas Larkin, the Sheriff of the Pine County Sheriff's Department is always suspicious when a rich person’s kitchen explodes. After all he is responsible for the county's well-being.

Katie's boyfriend, Eugene Austin, is awfully attentive, too much so; he reminds Mattie of someone after money.

Mattie rents a house along the lake for peace and quiet, with no interruptions, to write her new book. While she's there she becomes ill, and doctors find that Mattie has been poisoned.

The last known person to visit Mattie was her cousin Minnie. It appears someone is trying to frame Minnie for the attempted murder of Mattie.

Like a dog with a bone, Sheriff Larkin, keeps on digging into the lives of those around Mattie. He discovers the "interesting" history of Katie's boyfriend, Eugene Austin. Could Katie's ever-attentive boyfriend have an ulterior motive behind his acts of kindness?