Charleston, South Carolina, is alive with music, dancing, and the arts as the Spoleto festival gets underway. But Indigo Tea Shop owner Theodosia Browning feels far from festive when the inaugural Poet's Tea is forced into one of the Heritage Society's austere halls by rain. And when it rains, it pours--as proven when a respected auction house owner plummets from the balcony, landing dead on Theodosia's specially-prepared cake. Worse yet, it looks like someone helped him over the edge. With a full kettle of suspects, Theodosia pursues an investigation into the murky swamps of the Low Country, where she uncovers a thriving criminal enterprise of art forgery, fraud--and murder.