Mrs. Stella Ryman is a fish out of water, a stranger in a strange land-an amateur sleuth, trapped in a down-at-heel care home.

You'd be cranky too.

Stella remembered Mad Cassandra Browning's words: "There is danger, Stella Ryman." She shoved a hand deep into her pocket and wrapped her fingers around the keys to every door in Fairmount Manor Care Home.

What had Thelma asked for?

A real crime. This morning, Stella could smell crime, as clearly as the aromas of breakfast that wafted along the twisting Fairmount Manor corridors.

Octogenarian sleuth Stella Ryman returns to investigate a perplexing care home mystery that precipitates the disappearance of her closest friend, the fragile and fierce Thelma Hu.

The Greek Chorus spells out Thelma's doom: "Those who leave Fairmount seldom return."

Stella's only hope to find Thelma and bring her home, is to escape Fairmount Manor and head out alone, armed with her wiles and the resilience born of long experience -through the big city that she never thought she'd see again.