Detective Dan Shepherd lies comatose in the hospital, a victim of arsenic poisoning. The Newpointe police have a suspect: Celia Shepherd, Stan's wife. Celia is no stranger to such charges. When her first husband died of poisoning, a technicality scuttled the case against her, and Celia got off scot free. Now it looks like the same old story, only this time the motive appears plain. An old flame has moved into town under circumstances bound to raise suspicion. And that's just for starters.