When Pat Montella hears of the death of her Great Uncle Rocco, she heads back to her hometown for the funeral. Her ninety-one year-old mentor, historian Miss Maggie Shelby, decides to tag along, not only for the promise of all the Italian food she can eat (which would have been enough), but to make a pilgrimage to historic Montgomery Cemetery, where five Civil War generals are buried.

Pat and Miss Maggie are barely done with their first helping of Aunt Sophie's baked rigatoni when they discover that Rocco's granddaughter Beatrice can't locate his money. No one in the family doubts that Rocco had a nice little nest egg put away, yet his papers and safety deposit box yield nothing.

The duo stays with Pat's cousin Cella who is renovating the house next door to Aunt Sophie. After one night, Pat knows the place is haunted. She hears whispers in the front parlor, and feels an unseen feline brush up against her legs. A phantom cat? It isn't long before she finds links between the ghost, Uncle Rocco, the sudden death of the wealthiest man in town during the Great Depression, and an eighty-year-old unsolved grave robbery.

An attempted murder and another death in the family make Pat and Miss Maggie realize they have to work fast to make sense of those links . . . before the Montellas become an endangered species.