It's July 1895 and the New York elite have decamped to Newport, Rhode Island for a summer of balls, garden parties, and yacht races. Covering these events for the women's pages of the Newport Observer is Emma Vanderbilt-Cross, a fearless twenty-one-year-old writer with family ties to the wealthy Vanderbilt family.
While hosting the annual gathering of the Association for the Study of American Archaeology at Kenzer College, Emma Fielding is thrust into the midst of a murder mystery when the President of her organization is poisoned on the eve of announcing her successor. With many of the leading archaeologists present having expressed their entitlement to the presidency prior to the murder, Emma and FBI pal Jim Conner have plenty of likely suspects from which to choose.
Archaeologist Emma Fielding is hired to consult on the acquisition of a castle-like estate that local legend states is cursed. But she finds herself in the middle of a murder case after discovering the body of the archaeologist she was hired to shadow in a secret chamber in the bowels of the huge building. Assisted by her friend, FBI special agent Jim Conner, Fielding must sift through clues and a long list of suspects, each of whom has their own reason for wanting the man dead, to determine who is the killer.
Romanced by a charismatic professor, a college girl quits school to run away with and marry him. While her mother tries to convince her to come home, she slowly learns that he is a controlling husband with a shady past... and soon realizes that if she were to leave him he would kill her.