Roe Teagarden's been kept pretty busy, what with two weddings - one of a former lover - and a funeral, for Jane Engle, a member of her disbanded true crime club Real Murders, but her personal life seems to be at a standstill . . . until the reading of Jane Engle's will.

The elderly lady has named Roe as her heir, and left her a rather substantial estate. It includes her house - which comes complete with a skull hidden in a window-seat. Roe is quite sure Jane was no killer, so she must have left the skull there on purpose for Roe to solve the murder. So now it's up to Roe to identify the victim and figure out which one of Jane's seemingly ordinary neighbours is a murderer - without putting herself in deadly danger.