Sophie and Sam Shattenberg are two Jewish sisters from Queens, New York. Both love knishes and kosher pickles. Both have said "I'm wawkin' here!" to cab drivers--and meant it. When the unthinkable happens and their father dies, the girls are devastated. Desperate to get away from their greedy stepmother, they withdraw their father's money from the bank, pick up fake IDs, and hit the road. All is well until their car breaks down outside of Venice, Indiana, a town so isolated that the mechanic tells them, "You could get lost here forever." Which is exactly what they decide to do....

When Sophie starts school, she notices a flyer for a lecture featuring Professor Leo Shattenberg. Could this be their grandfather's missing cousin, believed to be dead since World War II? At the lecture, Sam and Sophie discover that Professor Shattenberg has a missing person of his own--a childhood sweetheart who, like him, had a love of chocolate. Seeing their chance, the girls offer to help the professor find his missing sweetheart--all the time running their own investigation of him.