Althea Stewart has had it with Holly-wood. Fed up with the dog-eat-dog life of a classical musician, her alcoholic ex-husband, and the shallow dating pool known as Los Angeles, Althea heads north to Washington State with nothing more than her violin, viola, and a quirky but determined attitude.

Althea soon convinces her best friend and colleague, cellist Grace Sullivan, to join her in opening a private music school in a rambling historic property in Kirkland, Washington. Anxious to uphold their outstanding reputations as hostess-es with the most, Althea and Grace are determined to pull o their rst holiday party in grand style. But instead, they unwittingly set the stage for the gruesome murder of a once-powerful Hollywood studio concertmaster. As a police investigation unfolds and one murder leads to another, Althea and Grace soon realize that their hopes for a quiet life in the Paci c Northwest have been dashed.

In this mystery tale lled with a symphony of blackmail, cold-blooded murder, and the possibility of love, Althea and a group of eclectic characters must tune into their detective instincts in order to nd a killer-before another life is sacri ced.