Newspaperman Jim Qwilleran and his two cats, Koko and Yum Yum, investigate a suspicious fire which killed a woman in her nineties. The 20th volume in the series, the novel introduces a new character, a swearing parrot.

"Texas, 1921. A time of abundance. The Great War is over, the bounty of the land is plentiful, and America is on the brink of a new and optimistic era. But for Elsa Wolcott, deemed too old to marry in a time when marriage is a woman's only option, the future seems bleak. Until the night she meets Rafe Martinelli and decides to change the direction of her life. With her reputation in ruin, there is only one respectable choice: marriage to a man she...