Jacob Burns - husband, father, and frustrated writer - has finally sold a screenplay. But success isn't all it's cracked up to be. Now he has writer's block, and he spends his days drinking coffee in his favorite cafe, Madeline's.

That is, until one warm summer morning when Donald Penn, an eccentric Madeline's regular, hands Jacob a key and drops dead at his feet. The key is to a safe deposit box, whose contents seem innocent enough - until Jacob's home is burglarized and his family threatened. Now Jacob is involved in a puzzling mystery that will expose him to some of the finest families in Saratoga Springs, New York - and some of the worst in human behavior. But to find a killer, Jacob first must prove that a murder has occurred.