"When flower-shop owner Bretta Solomon leaves her hometown of River City, Missouri, and heads for a florist convention in Branson, she's surprised to find a letter from Vincent and Mabel McDuffy slipped under her hotel room door, begging for help. The McDuffys seem to know of Bretta's success as an amateur sleuth around River City, and that, coupled with their admiration for Bretta's late husband, a police officer, has inspired them to ask Bretta to find out what happened to their daughter, who died of a heart attack a few months ago." The trouble is Bretta can't find the McDuffys. After leaving several other messages at the hotel, they seem to have vanished. And although she's curious enough to track them down and find out exactly what they want her to do, she's already got her hands full running the design contest at the annual florist convention, coping with back-stabbing competitors and suspicious colleagues.