When she's invited to teach at the elegant Easton Arts Retreat's 50th anniversary celebration, Lindy Haggerty happily accepts. After all, this prestigious institution is set in bucolic upstate New York in a gigantic mansion and is practically synonymous with summer dance. But instead of guiding her talented and quirky dancers to new heights, Lindy finds herself mired in betrayal, twisted desires-and a brutal death. The body of Larry Cleveland, a rebellious scholarship student who had few friends and a lot of rough edges, is found at the bottom of a nearby cliff. The evidence points to a simple accident. But the local sheriff, who has an ax to grind, wants to use the mishap to blacken the reputation of the Retreat and open the door to big-city developers. It's up to Lindy to find out what's really going on and who would have wanted Larry dead. With a ruthless killer closing in, Lindy takes the first position in the art of detecting: do whatever it takes to stay alive.