The Tilneys of Northanger Abbey are not entirely pleased to be sending their young daughter out into the social world again: the last house party she attended involved a murder--which she helped solve. She will be the guest of her new friend, Marianne Brandon, who has a scandalous shadow hanging over her. Even more troubling is the fact that Marianne's former suitor, the rakish John Willoughby, is setting up his household near by, complete with a young wife.

The Darcys of Pemberley are thrilled that their eldest son has been invited to a country house party by an old schoolmate. Other former classmates will be there, for riding and shooting and other proper pastimes for young men. Jonathan is less taken with the idea of sharing a roof with his old bully, but when he finds himself reunited with his sleuthing partner, the radiant Miss Tilney, he doesn't mind so much.

When Willoughby's young wife dies horribly in the midst of an elegant party, they have good reasons to spend a great deal of time together ferreting out the truth. As the local gentry, the sprawling Dashwood clan, and an old schoolmate of Jonathan's who is eager to add his "modern" scientific methods to the sleuthing duo's investigations (and perhaps get closer to Juliet than Jonathan is comfortable with) complicate the scene, eerie incidents suggest that the killer may strike again, and that the pair may be in far graver danger than they or their families could imagine.