Theodora "Teddy" Bentley, zookeeper at the Gunn Zoo, takes the zoo's llama, Alejandro, to a Renaissance fair in the Monterey Bay area. That is where Teddy discovers the still-warm body of the Reverend Victor Emerson, owner of the local wedding chapel, dressed in his costume as Henry the Eighth. At first it appears that Alejandro stomped the man to death, but a closer look shows a crossbow dart in the man's back. Teddy's investigation reveals that Reverend Victor wasn't really a reverend at all but an escaped convict, and Teddy's mother, Caro, a spoiled ex-beauty queen, becomes the chief murder suspect.