Wealthy and philanthropic Gladys Allison-McCourt owns Allicourt Industries, the biggest company in the town of Lawrenceton. Gladys' son, Cade McCourt, has recently been instated company CEO, he who seems to be at odds with many people including: retired Victor Hansen, the former CEO, who believes Cade is out of his element and is running the company he largely built into the ground; Tannis Clemmons, Gladys' longtime personal assistant, who battles with Cade over influence over his mother; and Jeremy Connor, Gladys' former personal chef who left her employ to start his own catering business. At the wedding reception of Gladys' niece Lizzie Allison and Gladys' lawyer Bubba Rankart, it catered by Jeremy, Gladys, who suffered from a heart condition, collapses and dies of a heart attack. As Police Chief Lynn Smith and her husband, Homicide Detective Arthur Smith, investigate, they find that Gladys did not die from a heart attack as initially suspected, but rather died of cyanide poisoning, traces of which were found in a water glass and a wine glass at the reception from which Gladys drunk. The murder investigation takes on a whole different flavor when Gladys' will is read, it a recently revised one, where two unexpected people receive the bulk of the estate - the person inheriting both the mansion and the business having no idea why Gladys would have chosen her as the primary beneficiary - rather than Cade, who was the primary beneficiary in the original will but who is virtually cut out in this revised will. As such, Cade moves to the top of the suspect list in what was obviously a troubled relationship he had with his mother. Much to Lynn's chagrin, librarian Aurora Teagarden - Ro to her friends - and her best friend/Gladys' niece, newspaper reporter Sally Allison, both members of the town's Real Murders Discussion Club, start to investigate with the help of their Real Murders colleagues in having greater motive than just their interest in unearthing the who's and why's behind murders in general. In the process, Ro's new boyfriend, Psychology Professor Nick Miller, puts aside much of his professional life at the college to help in any way he can. Nick does so to be closer to Ro and to ensure she remains safe especially in that a murderer is running loose, but his closeness in what he believes is an almost perfect relationship may trigger other unintended feelings in Ro.