Retired publisher Susan Ryeland is living the good life, running a small hotel on a Greek island with her boyfriend, although truth be told she's beginning to miss London. When the Trehearnes come to stay, they tell of a murder from years ago, that took place on their daughter Cecily's wedding day, at the same picturesque inn on the Suffolk coast. One of Susan's former writers, the late Alan Conway, had based a novel on that crime, and Cecily believes that the book could crack the case. After Cecily disappears, truth and fiction overlap dangerously, and in this follow-up to Magpie Murders, Susan must return to England and find out what really happened.