Trudy Roundtree, the newest--and only--female police officer for the Ogeechee, Georgia, police department, it introduced to the "detectin' side" of police work when the son-in-law of the richest man in town dies in a fire at his home. At first, his death is thought to be an accident, but Trudy soon realizes that it was murder. And, with the coincidental loss of the other members of the police force-- to a "wicked itch" of a rash contracted while hidin' in the bushes, lookin' to catch a local drug-runner--Trudy is on her own to find the murderer. In a small, southern town where everyone is related to everyone else, and most everyone knows everybody else's secrets, it didn't seem like too difficult a task ... but Trudy soon learns that some can keep secrets very well, even in the smallest of rural towns.