Burned out after a messy divorce and fifteen years of listening to sob stories, former New York City psychotherapist Janet Petrocelli has made a new, low-stress life for herself as a collectibles shop owner in the quiet Hudson Valley river town of Sawyersville.

Unfortunately, Janet is a magnet for nut jobs. In this case, it's the Livingstons, an aristocratic family that has gone to seed in a disturbingly seedy way. When the elderly estate co-owner, Daphne Livingston, offers her prized heirlooms to Janet for a hasty sale, the seemingly simple deal morphs into a tangled web of insanity, greed, and murder. Despite her resolve to steer clear of the murky depths of degeneracy and deceit, Janet becomes obsessed with finding justice for the dead . . . if the killer doesn't find her first.