Crossword editor Belle Graham hears that the devastating fire at the Collins family stables may have been a torch job. Former Prohibition-era bootleggers, the Collinses morphed into legitimate Newcastle high society. Rich and shameless, they feud amongst themselves as the aged patriarch enjoys marriage to a woman younger than his children-who have been pushed aside by their new step-mom.

Belle's P.I. hubby, Roscoe, is investigating the fire for the insurance company. The blaze is being blamed on the barn manager, a hard drinker who was sober enough to rescue the horses before being knocked into a coma. As Roscoe searches through a haystack of clues, Belle's guessing that someone in the Collins family already knows the answers.