In Concord, Louisa May Alcott farms pigs after success with Little Women, but as New England's freezing winter approaches, death isn't far away. Concord's Misses, armed with wit and elegance, money and secrets, are present when Miss Emily Collier dies at her forty-second birthday party. Louisa is embroiled in the intrigue. They will lie to her, set traps, and blackmail to avoid justice. And Louisa is now an outsider in what was once her home.

To test her mettle, local Justice of the Peace Captain Briers, a man compromised by lust for one of the Misses, enlists her to bring order to the twisted loyalties, land feuds, and secrets fuelling a seditious desire for revenge not seen in Middlesex County since the witch trials.