"Meg is relaxing in the hammock, taste-testing Michael's latest batch of Arnold Palmers and watching the hummingbirds at their feeders when her hopes for a relaxing early summer morning are dashed. First her father recruits her to help him install a new batch of bees in the hive in her backyard. Then Mayor Shiffley recruits her to placate the NIMBYs (Not in my backyard), as she calls them - a group of newcomers to Caerphilly who have built McMansions...

When her old friend Karen drops by with two-year-old son Timmy, Meg Langslow reluctantly agrees to babysit just for a little while. But when nightfall comes, the toddler is still in residence and Karen isn't answering any phone calls. Meg decides she must find out what's happening, so the next morning, with Timmy in tow, she retraces her friend's footsteps--and begins to suspect that Karen's disappearance is tied to at least one serious crime.

While digging a pool in the basement for a flock of penguins from the bankrupt local zoo, Meg Langslow's father accidentally stumbles upon a body buried beneath the floor, sending Meg on a desperate quest to find a killer.