Samantha "Ivy" Towers returns to Winter Break, Kansas, where she spent her summers as a child, to make funeral arrangements for her Aunt Bitty. While there, she begins to suspect her aunt's death, which resulted from a fall in her bookshop, wasn't an accident after all. Childhood friend Amos Parker, now sheriff of Winter Break, seems anxious to get Ivy out of town. A missing book, a message scrawled by an unknown person, and an extra coffee cup leave Ivy with more questions than answers.

Ivy Towers is working hard to get Miss Bitty’s Bygone Bookstore on its feet in Winter Break, Kansas, when she discovers a map hidden inside an old music box. Could the map lead her to the Lost Gambler’s Gold? The legend of the ill-fated 1860s gambler had circulated among residents for as long as Ivy can remember. But when Ivy follows the directions to where “X” marks the spot, what she digs up uncovers a mystery that leads to more than she ever imagined. Lives will be changed, old secrets revealed, and Ivy will learn that lost treasure can sometimes turn out to be much more valuable than a chest full of gold.

Ivy Towers is getting married to the love of her life. . .but she finds that trying to run a rare bookstore and plan her upcoming nuptials is more than she can handle. In steps Delaphine Shackleford, a new and unwilling resident in the small town of Winter Break, Kansas. Delaphine offers to be Ivy’s wedding planner, and Ivy jumps at her offer. But hiring the eccentric woman will not only drive Ivy to the brink of madness, it will also propel her into the middle of a bizarre murder mystery!

IVY TOWERS-TUCKER IS LOOKING FORWARD TO HER FIRST CHRISTMAS AS A MARRIED WOMAN... But a few days before December 25, Ivy and her husband Amos are awakened by noises on their rooftop. Amos’s joke that Santa Claus must have arrived early loses its humor when a body goes flying past their second-story window. A look outside reveals two legs covered in red velvet trousers and black boots sticking out of a snow bank! Ivy and Amos are even more surprised to find they belong to a dead man dressed as Santa Claus. The story circulates quickly through the small town of Winter Break that Ivy and Amos have killed Santa. Who is the dead man and why was he on their roof? Ivy has a Christmas mystery to solve that will bring a satisfying conclusion to the Ivy Towers Mystery series.