It's December 1942 and Betty Ahern is enjoying her fledgling career as a private detective, investigating everything from missing jewelry to wandering boyfriends. But when Bell Airplane co-worker Emilia Brewka, whose grandmother recently died, wants Betty to prove the death was murder and not natural causes, Betty thinks Emilia's grief has her seeing things that aren't there.After a member of the visiting Polish government in exile is murdered, she learns the grandmother may have contacted him about a secret involving a wealthy Buffalo family-a secret that goes all the way back to the Old Country and the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian war. Suddenly, murder looks more than possible.Betty and her friends travel between Buffalo's working-class neighborhoods and the city's high society, determined to unearth the secret and find justice for Emmie's grandmother. But mixing with the upper class quickly becomes dangerous and potentially deadly - both for Betty's career as a detective and herself.