Quilt shop owner Dewey Pellicano intends to mix business with pleasure at the Sewing-by-the-Sea Symposium in scenic oceanside Asilomar, California. The retreat is ruined by Mercedes Madsen, the conference organizer who seems to be out to get Dewey.

Buster Healy is a hundred miles away but manages to come down for a comfort visit. By then, Dewey is facing a stolen heirloom sewing box, a mysterious missing woman, and a mountain lion on the loose...and that's before she stumbles across the dead body.

Armed only with her wits and nearly derailed by an unpleasant personal surprise, Dewey fights to find her place in the quilting world and solve the murder mystery.