The outcry when Conan Doyle pushed Sherlock Holmes over the Reichenbach Falls and the dismay when Freeling shot Van der Valk are as nothing compared to the chaos that ensues when Lorinda Lucas tries to dispose of Miss Petunia and her siblings, Lily and Marigold. Not only does the lid blow off the fictional village of St. Waldemar Boniface, but the literary colony of Brimful Coffers is shaken to its foundations.

Old feuds are resurrected and new feuds are born as a town full of mystery writers begins to wonder if Life has imitated Art or vice versa. Even the cats, Had-I, But-Known, and Roscoe, become embroiled and add their share to the motives for murder and frayed nerves in the community.