In a boldly personal move, Police Chief Wayne Gallant has arranged a meeting between his children and Bellehaven's beloved librarian Helma Zukas. But the fates have not yet smiled on this pair, as the long overdue introductions are interrupted -- by murder. For not only is Helma's newest neighbor pushing up roses in her garden, her latest crop's a corpse. And when the chief's investigation has him digging too close to the truth, he's helped to a nearly fatal fall from a cliff, a potentially incriminating library book found within reach.

The police demand the library turn over the borrower's name. Determined to uphold the privacy rights of library patrons, the ever-mindful Miss Zukas deletes the information from library records -- but not before she takes note of it. And now it's up to Helma -- with teenagers in tow and an assist from bohemian buddy Ruth -- to get to the bottom of this murderous mess before Wayne Gallant's assailant makes sure the evidence Miss Zukas holds is shelved...permanently.