To shake him out of his near catatonic state, his editor dispatches him to Dorset, Connecticut, to do a feature on the old-money, sailing, Ivy League society there. He rents a tiny cottage on the exclusive, oldest-money island of Big Sister and is immediately the victim of attempts to scare him off. He stays, but violence still can rush in where the Lower Classes are supposed to fear to tread.

A murdered body is discovered on the island, and the posh inhabitants must accept an investigation. And so Mitch meets Desiree Mitry, a very beautiful, very competent, and very proud black State Police officer. (She's a wonderful person, but don't leave her a small opening or you'll find yourself adopting one of her rescued stray cats!). She has been investigating the murder of a waitress in a neighboring town bar, a single mother trying to make ends meet -- one way or another.