When Kate McBride returns to her hometown of Bishop's Bridge, North Carolina, for a family reunion, she expects questions about her husband's conspicuous absence. What she doesn't expect is murder. Soon after arriving, Kate finds her great uncle's housekeeper, Ella Stegall, badly injured and incoherent, at the bottom of a wooded ravine after an apparent fall from a ledge. But moments before losing consciousness, Ella whispers she was pushed--not surprising, considering that Bramblewood, Uncle Ernest's woodsy estate, is no stranger to murder and intrigue. Could Ella's accident be connected to Bramblewood's mysterious past, or was her claim just the rambling of a delirious old woman? Poor Ella slips away before leaving more clues to her death.