After a near-fatal confrontation with a serial killer, irreverent reporter Alex Bernier is more than happy to cover a nice, dull story on the ongoing, hapless attempts to save a grand old theatre in Gabriel, the college town in upstate New York where she lives. But when the body of a long-vanished actress turns up in the wreckage and high-profile theatre supporters start dying off, Alex finds herself at odds with a strange troupe of suspects. There is a duplicitous former child star and a group of academic wives harbouring nasty secrets, not to mention a vicious mob boss. Again, Alex must play the detective, sorting illusion from deadly truth and, with luck, outwitting a murderer determined to bring an end to her performance.