Against the backdrop of Scottish pubs, ferry boat rides, Puget Sound Islands, lawyer bashes, elegant fundraisers, and lavish funerals laden with coffee bars, Jenny McNair Campbell unravels the truth of Amy Morrison's life as well as her death. She also realizes some truths about her own life.

In the first book in the Jenny McNair Mystery Series, Unlawful Alliances, Jenny's father, Charlie McNair—Scotsman, trumpet player, professor, ladies' man, and private detective—involves Jenny in yet another of his cases of the unfaithful spouse. Her world is turned inside out as she spies on members and family members of her own husband's law firm. When the subject of the investigation, Amy Morrison, drowns in her hot tub, Jenny's father wants her off the case, but she refuses to quit. She was, after all, aside from Amy's murderer, the last person to see Amy alive.