Searching for the long-lost sister of an Irish-American impresario, P.I. Molly Murphy leaves turn-of-the-century New York to head back to her native Ireland, only to be confronted by the murder of her maid and the disappearance of a famed Irish actress.

Fleeing a false accusation of murder in Ireland, Molly Murphy becomes involved in another murder case when the man who was harrassing her on the boat to America turns up dead also.

"Molly Murphy--now Molly Sullivan--is a year into her marriage, expecting her first child, and confined to the life of a housewife. The most important decision Molly faces these days is whether the lace curtains need cleaning, and she's restless and irritable in the heat of a New York summer and the enforced idleness of pregnancy. So when a trip to the post office brings a letter addressed to her old detective agency asking her to locate a missing...