A Renaissance Fair is coming to the relatively quiet college town of Farberville, Arkansas. Though resistant to getting involved, Claire Malloy, local bookseller and mother of the perpetually petulant teenager Caron (she who speaks in ALL CAPS), finds herself drawn into the strange inner workings of the group putting on the fair. But suddenly, a dark mood falls over the festivities when one of the organizers is a victim of arson, and her body is found in the burned wreckage of her rented house. The circumstances of the crime take an unusual turn when it seems that no one can identify the body, since mysteriously no one has seen the woman in the flesh. Someone is definitely deadbut is it murder? And how does it all relate to the very singular members of the local chapter of The Association for Renaissance Scholarship and Enlightenment (ARSE)?