After a terrible storm, Stephen Earl's four daughters tell Sheriff Tupper that their father died while they were out on the boat. Jessica is only midly intrigued; she finds Ralph, the older gentleman who has offered to work for food, much more intriguing, especially since it is obvious he comes from money. The womens' stories about what happened on the boat change constantly, but once Ralph is found dead and later found to be Stephen Earl, Jessica has to help Amos wage through the inconsistencies in the four Earl daughters storylines to determine who killed their father and why.

Jessica heads to San Francisco for the wedding of her niece, Victoria Brandon, only to learn that Victoria is having second thoughts because she suspects that her fiancé, Howard, is having an affair. Although Jessica and Victoria are relieved to learn that Howard isn't cheating but rather dressing up as a woman to perform at a nightclub, the relief is short lived when Howard is arrested for murdering his boss, Al Drake, who had been refusing to pay him. The police are convinced that Drake was shot during Freddy York's act, which doesn't leave a lot of time, but Jessica is determined to prove Howard's innocence.

Jessica's first book, The Corpse Danced at Midnight, is being made into a major Hollywood motion picture, backed by producer Jerry Lydecker. Jessica is furious to see how her book is being butchered by Lydecker and his crew. She heads out to Hollywood to confront Lydecker, but things take a turn when Lydecker is found dead on stage. Jessica ends up being the prime suspect in the murder, but luckily the officer in charge of the investigation believes she's too smart to be the killer and sets her up to find the real murderer.

While visiting her cousin at Langley Manor, a country estate in the South, a man dies during a fox-hunt under strange circumstances, and Jessica tries to find out what really happened.

While in Seattle lecturing at the university, Jessica is convinced that the young man she hired as her secretary is not a killer.

Jessica helps a most unconventional neighbor who is accused of murdering his former partner with one of his inventions.

Jessica is asked to help solve the "impossible" murder of a wealthy, and much disliked, amusement park owner.

While attending a special ballet performance, Jessica helps solve the backstage murder of a young dancer by a defecting ballerina.

Jessica's deductive abilities are in demand when a flamboyant hypnotist turns up dead, behind locked doors, in front of an audience of journalists whom he had put into a trance.