Jacqueline Kirby decided to get away from the weather and doldrums at Coldwater College in Nebraska. A trip to New York would be ideal, and since she is the assistant head librarian at the college, she can take the trip as a tax-deductible professional expense: She will attend the convention of the Historical Romance Writers of the World.

The visit is everything that Jacqueline thought it would be and more. Much more. First, Dubretta Duberstein, the scandal columnist, dies under mysterious circumstances. She did have a bad heart, of course, but.... Then, one of the most popular of the writers at the convention, Valerie Valentine, asks Jacqueline for help. Someone, it seems, is threatening to kill the novelist.