Mystery novelist Paisley Sterling is happier than she ever dreamed. As successful writer she is free to return to her mother's farm in Kentucky where she trades in her panty hose and high-heeled shoes for jeans and loafers. Her only problem is the pen name of "Leonard Paisley" that her agent encourages her to assume because "a detective novel will sell better if it's written by a man." Unfortunately Paisley finds out that every paradise has its snake when her beautiful daughter, Cassie falls, in love with a young epidemiologist from the Centers for Disease Control. Dr. Ethan McEnery has come to Rowan Springs to investigate a medical mystery. When he is unexpectedly arrested for rape and murder, Ethan turns to Paisley - and "Leonard" for help. What follows is a roller coaster ride of slapstick comedy and nail-biting suspense as Paisley, her daughter, and her mother, Anna, search for clues to the crime and the mysterious deaths that brought the CDC to Rowan Springs in the first place. During their investigations they discover a man who, in his insane desire to become the ultimate judge of who will live and who will die, has unleashed a dangerous and deadly pathogen that may prove impossible for even the most advanced medical science to contain...