It’s December 1926, and all of England is enthralled by the disappearance of mystery novelist Agatha Christie. Miss Pippa Darling, her cousin and best friend Christopher Astley, and Christopher’s cousin Crispin, the newly-minted Duke of Sutherland, get in on the action as they speculate, surmise, and go off to the wilds of Surrey to look for clues. But while they’re preoccupied, trouble hits closer to home. Crispin’s nuptials to Lady Laetitia Marsden are scheduled for the third weekend in December, and when the bride-to-be is reported missing by her family, Detective-Sergeant Tom Gardiner gets involved. Things do not look good for the trio. Pippa and Christopher have been overheard discussing ways to stop the wedding—perhaps by getting rid of Laetitia, maybe even permanently. And everyone knows that Crispin isn’t in love with his fiancée, including Laetitia herself. Pippa wonders if the bride-to-be may have taken inspiration from the missing novelist and be in hiding. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, after all, and if Crispin can’t find her, he can’t break the engagement. When a ransom note arrives, demanding a small fortune for Laetitia’s return, Pippa, Christopher, and Crispin fly into action, aided by Tom and his colleagues at Scotland Yard. But finding Laetitia and figuring out what’s going on turns out to be a more difficult proposition than expected, and the end result isn’t what anyone expected or wanted.