Springtime in Seattle's Pike Place Market means tasty foods and wide-eyed tourists, and Pepper's Spice Shop is ready for the crowds. With flavorful combinations and a fresh approach, she's sure to win over the public. Even better, she's working with several local restaurants as their chief herb and spice supplier. Business is cooking, until one of Pepper's potential clients, a young chef named Tamara Langston, is found dead, her life extinguished by the dangerously hot ghost chili -- a spice Pepper carries in her shop. Now stuck in the middle of a heated police investigation, Pepper must use all her senses to find out who wanted to keep Tamara's new cafe from opening -- before someone else gets burned.