"I have to tell you something . . . something that happened a long time ago."

These words, spoken by Ursula Rowe from her Aleford, Massachusetts, sickbed, take Faith Fairchild completely by surprise. Having agreed to keep an eye on her best friend Pix Millers's mother while Pix is involved in her son's out-of-town wedding preparations, Faith never dreamed she'd become ensnared in the tale the slowly recovering Ursula spins over the next few weeks—a bizarre account of an unsolved crime dating back to the Great Depression. Now the caterer- turned-sleuth is hooked, determined to solve a mystery more than eight decades old—while at the same time trying to clear the name of her husband, Reverend Thomas Fairchild, who's been falsely accused of pilfering the church's discretionary fund.

And meanwhile, when Pix Miller meets her in-laws-to-be for the very first time, she's in for the shock of her life . . .