In the heart of Old San Francisco, Mrs. Karine Kelly's new career as the confectioner at the opulent Palace Hotel takes a deadly turn when the reverend from her small Minnesota town—a man she believes murdered her aunt—unexpectedly arrives with familiar and hated companions, eats one of her signature desserts and drops dead from poisoning. Suddenly, she's ringing in the New Year as a murder suspect.

Detective Fisher's team is stretched thin after a freak snowfall hits New Year's Day. Then he receives a midnight summons to the Palace where a man has been brazenly murdered. Once again Mrs. Kelly is the prime suspect, yet she holds the key to who the murdered man was and who might have wanted him dead. His young wife who yearns to perform on stage? His estranged son, set to inherit the congregation? Two of his most devoted followers?

As the web of suspicion grows, Mrs. Kelly finds herself at its center, her future hanging in the balance, with only a sparkling earring for a clue, and a tenuous truce with Detective Fisher. And then the murderer strikes again.