When the sheriff asks for her help investigating a bizarre series of anonymous letters alleging the wrongful murder conviction of a recently deceased man, Advocate owner Emma Lord is alarmed by the letter-writer's threats that more deaths will follow if the truth is not revealed.

Christmas is anything but quiet in Alpine, Washington, after a body turns up in a cave and Emma Lord and her beau, Milo, are stalked by a killer.

While house-sitting at her aunt and uncle's retirement home on Whoopee Island with her cousin Renie, Innkeeper Judith McMonigle Flynn must dig for answers, as well as clams, when an older gentleman is murdered and everyone thinks they did it.

In the middle of his funeral, the widow of an octogenarian hysterically insists that he was murdered, and Emma Lord, publisher of The Alpine Advocate, who is already investigating a threatening letter received by the town's beautiful blonde judge, now suspects she has two hot stories to unravel.

Shocked by the arrival of a guest who claims to be her son, Judith McMonigle Flynn accepts the young man's help investigating a murder on the premises only to discover that he has designs on the inn.