Librarian extraordinaire Miss Helma Zukas wakes up on the morning of her forty-second birthday in the throes of more than one midlife crisis. Her championing a collection of local authors' works ignites a firestorm of jealousy and anger in Bellehaven. She's blackmailed by her conniving boss, library director May Apple Moon, into attending group counseling sessions - and two of the participants turn up dead. An obnoxiously bubbly new librarian is turning the head of Helma's longtime admirer, Police Chief Wayne Gallant. And worst of all, her uncuddly feline companion, Boy Cat Zukas disappears.