In a suburban town in Connecticut, Cora Felton has some small measure of notoriety as the Puzzle Lady, reputed constructor of syndicated crosswords. The much married and generally alcoholic Cora, though, is a front for her niece Sherry, the real cruciverbalist. Sherry keeps up the ruse and tries to keep Cora from trouble, but it's not easy when Cora has just been named judge of a bizarre scheme set up by a wealthy and newly deceased widow. Her heirs--a scurvy lot--stand to inherit only if they can solve the crossword puzzle she left. That puzzle leads to a cryptic scavenger hunt and then to the reddest of herrings, while the murders pile up. Cora, when sober, is feisty and sharp, a foil to the emotionally wounded but diligent Sherry.