Philomela Nightingale and her employee, Janice McGill, take the trip of a lifetime-around the world. They fly to amazing places, stay in lovely hotels, meet fascinating people, and experience different cultures. To their horror they also become involved with kidnapping and murder. Will Philomela's observational powers and intuition enable her to help the police solve these puzzling mysteries or has she finally bitten off more than she can handle?

Everyone's favorite amateur sleuth, Philomela Nightingale, visits her sister in the town of Saltaire. While coping with a thieving museum volunteer and a charlatan psychic, the two women become involved with an identity theft, a hit-and-run car accident, and a murder. The search for clues is overshadowed by a ladies fashion-show and a compulsive shopper and, this time, Philomela's powers of observation and intuition might not be strong enough for her to help the police solve these three serious puzzles.