Cat cafe owner Maddie James is trying to talk herself out of having a blue Christmas - relationship woes aren't worth it, are they? - by throwing herself into work. The renovations on Grandpa Leo's house-turned-cat-cafe are nearly complete, and she has a lot of organising to do. Plus, she's part of a volunteer contingency caring for a feral cat colony in one of the richest neighbourhoods on the island. But not everyone has a soft spot for community cats, and lately things have been getting contentious between the neighbours and the volunteers. Things take a turn for the worse when one of the residents, Virgil Proust, is found face-first in a snowbank after being bludgeoned with a Christmas gnome and Maddie's rescue pal Katrina is blamed for the murder. Maddie doesn't believe it, but to help her friend, she has to figure out who done it - before someone gets away with the purr-fect crime.