The campus of Maine's Bowmouth College looks like a picture postcard of New England-snow-covered lawns, students in colorful ski parkas, icicles dangling on the ivied halls. Sarah Deane-English Fellow with an honorary degree in sleuthing-expects to spend a quiet term here taking some graduate courses and doing a little teaching.

But then Sarah finds that someone's organized an advanced course in murder. The first lesson comes when a woman student is found frozen into a prize-winning snow sculpture during Carnival weekend. The second is served up with a cozy cup of poisoned cocoa. And when the clues point straight to an English department already rife with rivalries, Sarah realizes that a little learning can be a very dangerous thing...