Librarian and member of Lawrenceton's Real Murders discussion club Aurora Teagarden - "Ro" to her friends and family - has acted as big sister to her cousin Phillip Pifer ever since he started attending Lawrenceton College. Her time with him is somewhat to take her mind off missing who was her serious boyfriend Martin Bartell, the two who broke up after he moved away to rejoin the CIA. Although Ro states she isn't ready to date again yet, her best friend, newspaper reporter Sally Allison, and her mother, realtor Aida Teagarden, believe otherwise. For Phillip's birthday, Ro and Aida invite him out to dinner along with his dorm roommate Josh Farrell and Josh's girlfriend Tammy Driscoll. When Ro goes looking for them after they miss dinner on what ended up being a lie told by Phillip, she discovers Tammy's dead body in the back alley behind the salon where she had a hair appointment, her death in a seeming hit and run.