Love in bloom, fraught family relationships, a budding art career, embezzlement, blackmail, betrayal; life goes on...until a murder intrudes.

Walter Conway, a former FBI agent, and Susan Brooks are in love. To Walter's consternation, Susan is slow to commit to marriage because of lingering emotional attachments to her late husband and the challenges of merging their families and finances.

In California, released from prison, Miguel Sanchez hopes to build an art career. He juggles his job, prepares for a solo show, and looks after his disabled grandmother. When Walter and Susan visit California, their lives and Miguel's intersect.

Miguel's former lover, Henry Jenkins—a fellow artist and blackmailer—is murdered. The police focus on Miguel, who had both motive and opportunity, as their chief suspect. Certain of his innocence, Miguel's family asks Susan and Walter for help. They must search urgently for evidence to divert police suspicions and save a man's life.