Literary agent Jane Stuart delves into murder at a writers' retreat. An old friend, Ivy Benson (the mother of the murder victim in the first in the series, Missing Marlene), reappears just as Jane has agreed to help out at a writers' weekend being held at Mt. Munsee Lodge. Ivy has a new man in her life, Johnny, and she seems to want to mend her fences with Jane, but Jane has misgivings about Ivy's new heartthrob and his intentions toward her friend. Johnny's on the run from something, and his antics with one of the women at the lodge soon cause problems for everyone. When Jane discovers Ivy dead, killed by an ice pick, she figures Johnny is the likely killer-except that he's disappeared.