Just as Alix Madsen is finishing up architectural school, Adelaide Kingsley dies and wills her, for one year, the use of a nineteenth-century Nantucket house. The elderly woman's relationship to the Madsen family is a mystery to the spirited Alix, but she accepts the quirky bequest, in part because it gives her time to plan her best friend's wedding. But it seems that Adelaide Kingsley had a rather specific task for Alix: to solve the strange disappearance...

Life is anything but perfect for Hallie Hartley, a young physical therapist who has given up nearly everything -- even her love life -- for her beautiful blonde stepsister, Shelly. Though Shelly's acting career has never taken off, she has certainly perfected the crocodile tears to get what she wants -- which all too often means Hallie's boyfriends. When Hallie arrives home early from work one fateful day, she makes two startling discoveries that...