A simple, lucrative project to grow ferns seems an attractive proposition for R&P Labs, but that's before Florida botanist Grayson Quayle travels 3,000 miles to attach himself to the lab, bringing with him a pile of unwelcome personal baggage.

The R&P staff would like to see the last of Quayle, but it appears that they're not the only ones. When arsenic from a scientific project is put to an unscientific use, the scientists turned sleuths find themselves involved in another criminal case, with a list of suspects including a wife with a grievance, an investigator with an agenda and a blackmailer with an unusual demand.