Part-time librarian Aurora 'Roe' Teagarden never liked Detective Sergeant Jack Burns, but she also never wanted to see him dead, especially not dropped from a plane right into her own backyard. But when other strange things happen around her, ranging from peculiar (her irascible cat turns up wearing a pink ribbon) to violent (her assistant at the library is attacked) to potentially deadly (her former lover is stabbed), she must decipher the personal message in the madness before it's too late.