While investigating the death of her former co-worker, mystery writer Claire Fields, Arlie Coleman stumbles into a web of fraud and intrigue surrounding the extravagant lifestyle of publisher Graham Nesbitt and his high-society wife, Angelica. Aided in her quest by her canine companion Chispa, friend Anne Berrigan, and cantankerous French gardener Allix Pierre Durand, Arlie finds new meaning in her life by learning that nature and humanity can be intertwined into a constructive rather than an adversarial relationship.