The war is over and Asey Mayo has come home to Cape Cod bag and baggage. He arrives to a bake sale going on at his house to raise money to repair destruction wreaked upon the Cape by a recent hurricane. — Jenny, his cousin-housekeeper, sends him off to wander in the woods dressed in the business suit he was wearing to travel. He finds the body of a well-dressed young woman who turns out to be the daughter of a former enemy. Other people are about, sorting through the debris left by the storm. He chases someone, is chased himself and gets thrown into a muddy swamp. He even becomes the primary murder suspect. Soon he's cleared and free to detect by talking to the characters that people these books, a bitter writer, a love-lorn ex-Wac, a grouchy old lady, and a chubby eleven-year-old girl named Mildred, who all lead to the murder's solution.