River City, Missouri, florist Bretta Solomon is looking forward to her day off from her busy flower shop. She wants to relax, enjoy the gorgeous summer day, and attend the picnic and open house being given by her friends Dan and Natalie Parker, the owners of Parker Greenhouse, a big and varied operation that also specializes in breeding orchids.

That's what she's looking forward to - that is, until her second in command at the flower shop comes down with a sinus infection and Bretta is forced to spend her free day taking care of the flower arrangements for a funeral. And so she already has death on her mind when she and her father arrive at the Parker Greenhouse in the afternoon for the rest of the festivities. What a coincidence - it's not long before death is the main event at the picnic, and a violent death at that. One of the greenhouse employees is discovered, by Bretta's father, no less, lying in a pool of blood on a dimly lit patch of lawn next to a beautiful garden. Because Bretta knows the greenhouse staff so well, both the sheriff and the Parkers want her help in figuring out who could be behind such a brutal crime.