Everyone told Cara Shelly that she was crazy to set up a café in the shadow of eccentric Kentish stately home Tanton Towers. But now, three years later, the 40-something single mother can't believe her good luck. The Happy Huffkin café is thriving, and Cara considers the Tanton Towers staff - and its equally eccentric owners, Max and Alison - to be more like family than colleagues. But one beautiful summer evening, when Cara's hard at work clearing up after closing time, Alison comes hurtling down to the café to beg her for help. Daphne Hanson, queen of the Towers' costume-clad dancing troupe - and the greatest nosy parker in Kent - is lying dead in the orangery. Strangled! But by whom? And why? Determined that the culprit should not be one of her friends, and suspicious of the detective assigned the case, Cara launches her own investigation.