Nine months after the same sex marriage of retirees FBI senior investigator Charlotte Diamond and movie box-office actress Brenda Brandon/Boynton (See the eighth in the Charlotte Diamond Mystery Series, Horrid Honeymoon) the two are putting on a Christmas program at the Curtain Call retirement home for movie folks. The Christmas concert is intended to bring together the townspeople of the riverside village of Hopewell, Maryland, and the residents of the new retirement home, which has become a major part of the town. Efforts at melding the two communities aren’t looking like they will be successful, though.

The plot thickens when the Christmas program’s lead actress, Cassandra Carlisle, who fancies herself as competition for Brenda Brandon for the queen of the movies spotlight, mysteriously disappears at night in a snow storm and another resident of the home declares that she has been murdered by her visiting son.

Charlotte and Brenda’s canines, Sam the husky and Rocket the boxer, take charge to try to save the day.