Liza Johnson, at loose ends on summer break from teaching fifth grade, is drawn into intrigue when her 84-year-old neighbor, Mrs. Wilkens, insists that Ramona, Liza's former GED student, has been murdered. Everyone assumes Ramona, a recovering addict, died of an accidental or intentional overdose, but Mrs. Wilkens is out to prove them wrong. Liza is urged to act when the voice in her head of her twin sister Charlee, who died at age four, tells her, Help Mrs. Wilkens. Spurred by the irrepressible Mrs. Wilkens and Charlee, Liza finds herself embroiled in an investigation involving a failing church, a very ill pastor's wife, and a secret within the walls of the parish house. Adding to the intrigue, she becomes the begrudging caretaker of Goldie, Ramona's cat-the only witness to her death.