Jane Thistle was happily married to a career military officer whose job took her all around the globe. But now that he's passed, she's happy to call the quaint town of Tullulah, Alabama, her new home. Her new best friend, Phoebe Twigg, is also a widow, and has lived in Tullulah all her life. Phoebe is about as different as could be from the worldly and refined Jane. But Phoebe's warm, welcoming Southern nature wins her over, and the two women end up making quite a pair. Especially when they stumble over a dead body while on a walk in the woods.

And that's not all: Someone is threatening Jane's neighbor, a local old recluse who seems to have more interest in the land than in its inhabitants. Then a firebomb explodes in Phoebe's kitchen. And random unexplainable sounds and objects keep disrupting the peace and quiet at Jane's house. What on earth is going on in the otherwise ordinary town of Tullulah? Now it's up to the extraordinary team of Thistle and Twigg to find out.