Joanne Kilbourn was a top police detective, until her distress over the unsolved murder of her husband caused her to leave the force to become a university lecturer. Still trying to help her three children deal with the death of their father, she gets drawn back into another murder investigation when her old friend, flighty artist Sally Love, comes back to town for an exhibit. When Sally's ex-husband turns up dead, Jo's old partner Millard lists Sally as the main suspect. Jo must determine if Sally is innocent or guilty; she also must figure out how the present day murder fits in with the mysterious death of Sally's father at their summer cottage twenty years ago.