Rory Roberts is happy with her quiet life. She's single, forty-something, and lives in the sleepy town of Brooksford, MD, population 227, where the latest excitement is the debate over speed bumps. With a cozy cottage to call home and her lifelong best friend right next door, what more could she want or need? Certainly not a cat. But she becomes intrigued with the fluffy-tailed calico she meets at a neighbor's house and agrees to take the cat home, just to see how it goes. In short order, the calico, whom she names Miss Cuddlywumps (a.k.a. Miss C), has taken over Rory's life and Rory begins to fear she is becoming one of those "cat people." Miss C, though, is no average cat: She is a classically educated feline who can quote ancient texts and solve mysteries. When she witnesses the violent murder of a speed-bump advocate outside Rory's front door, Miss C must use all of her education and wits to identify the killer before her new person becomes the next victim.