Future intrepid lawyer Nina Reilly makes her way through law school by working as a paralegal, an endeavor that is challenged by an ex-boyfriend's custody battle, her mother's failing health, and a suspicious suicide.

Abby Northrope has everything a woman could want. A wonderful home in Carmel-by-the-Sea, a wealthy lawyer husband, a wide circle of friends and a secure place in the community. She has everything...until Marti Bright, Abby's best friend from school days, is brutally murdered -- crucified on a hill overlooking Carmel. But Abby lives with a secret of her own: her ailing marriage, so fairy-tale-like to outsiders, is crumbling. As Abby turns all her energies...

The body of a woman washes ashore near a lighthouse where typist and sleuth Fremont Jones of San Francisco is working on manuscripts for local writers. As she searches for clues to the woman's identity, Fremont discovers she was a hostess at parties given by a land developer.