Sculptor Jane Constant is artist-in-residence at Green Gardens, an ancient seaside mansion turned artist's colony.

This summer's crop of eccentrics and other creative types include the handsome actor Gabriel Hardy rehearsing for Hamlet, the stoner musician Dink Sheldrake with an opera to write, the alcoholic abstract impressionist Ted Mitran and Midnight Bunting, a retired madam who wants to spend her summer writing a tell all memoir about her rich and famous clients. Then there's politically ambitious next door neighbor Barbara Barkley, who wants Green Gardens closed down as a disgrace to the upscale seaside community and a Chief of Police who's interested in more than Jane's art.

When Midnight Bunting is found dead in Gabriel Hardy's bed, suspicion falls on everyone, and things look desperate for the continued existence of the beloved old artist's colony. . .