Hugh Hedley, son of a prominent upstate New York family and Adrian's rival in the cutthroat world of high-end Manhattan real estate, is found murdered with a prop stolen from the play. Mrs. Van Dusen is desperate to keep her daughter's name out of the paper, and so Charlotte Fairfax is drawn into a murder case amid her costume-design responsibilities and finding a home for the company's new theater school.
Charlotte nevertheless throws herself into an investigation of shady business deals, a missing dog, and long-buried family secrets because "though she be but little, she is fierce!"