When fire forces TV executive Robin Hudson to vacate her apartment, she and her cat, Louise Bryant, move to the fabled Chelsea Hotel, the bohemian hostelry where artists both famous and infamous have long lived in semi peaceful co-existance with countless hangers-on, wanna-bes, and rubberneckers looking for the "real" New York.

The smoky-eyed art dealer she's just met dies on her doorstep, drawing Robin reluctantly into a murder investigation. Is the murder related in some way to the star-crossed and rather irritable young lovers who have appealed to Robin for help? Or to a deadly catfight between rival lovers of the dead man? And how did the cake-baking nuns of Immaculate Confection, Inc., figure into it?

To sort it out, Robin must brave the whole downtown scene and more: guerrilla artists, jealous women, Zen bodybuilders, gouty widows, and befuddled tourists. It can make a girl crazy, having to dig deep into the history of the venerable hotel nicknamed (not without reason) "the mother ship". Oh, plus...one final, terrible complication: Robin seems to have fallen accidentally in love