Covering a polo match for the Observer, Emmas job is to take note of the real players off the field -- Newports well-bred elite. But the fashionable façade is breached when a woman in gaudy clothing creates a scene demanding to speak to the wife of Senator George Wetmoreuntil she is escorted off the grounds by the police. The next morning, police detective Jesse Whyte asks Emma to meet him at the Wetmores Bellevue Avenue home, Chateau sur Mer, where the senators wife, Edith, has mysteriously asked to see her. Upon entering the mansion, Emma is confronted with a crime scenethe intruder from the polo match lies dead at the foot of a grand staircase. To avoid scandal, Edith Wetmore implores Emma to use her reporter skills and her discretion to investigate. When Emma learns the victim was a prostituteand pregnantshe wonders if the senator was being blackmailed. As Emma peels back layers of deception and family secrets, she may have met her match in a desperate killer who will trample anyone who gets in the way...