Dan and Rivka Sherman, owners of The Olde Victorian Bookstore, encounter a threatening new mystery. Dan wants to know why copies of a book on the history of the Atkins family have disappeared, not only from the bookstore, but from all the local libraries and even the author's bookshelves. Someone is trying to hide the book's secrets, but who is it and what crime is the thief trying to hide? Does it have anything to do with the ugly Atkins family mansion? Can stalking, threats, break-ins, and even murder sway Dan from solving this puzzle? Rivka fears for their lives.
Tom Dwyer, a retired truck driver, is ready to confess sins he and another driver committed twenty years earlier. The Shermans' bookstore clerk Ivy hears gossip that could derail her wedding.