After a winter when she solved the cold case of a high school friend found dead in The Barn, Deborah Strong needs a distraction. She joins a conference entitled "Libraries: Where Have We Been, Where Are We Going?" that will be useful for her work as a librarian in the small town of Shelby. The setting at a picturesque college in New Hampshire should also be healing.

Deborah's project for the week plunges her into a mystery that would delight most researchers. What are the connections between a Bible dubbed "The Wicked Bible," a woman called "The Wickedest Woman in New York," a book written by Abigail Brewster, and a letter penned to this nineteenth-century author? As she slowly unravels the connections, Deborah confronts an event from her own past and anticipates a future that could be as brilliant as New Hampshire's September foliage.

The second in the Deborah Strong series cleverly connects to the research Deborah's friend Susan Warner discovered about Abigail Brewster in Dean's Death of the Keynote Speaker.