Edna Ferber, not completely satisfied with her forthcoming novel ICE PALACE, has just returned to Alaska for further research and is fascinated by Jack Mabie and his wild tales. Plus the previous summer, young Athabascan lawyer Noah West --- bent on bettering the lives of Alaskan Natives --- had sharpened Edna's sense of a corner of the territory she'd ignored. When Jack is found beaten to death, Noah becomes a suspect. Two violent deaths follow. Edna, Noah's advocate, decides she needs to clear his name, believing the murders are connected. As debates over potential statehood rage, Edna begins unearthing scandals and sordid stories hidden in Fairbanks but also dating back to village life in Fort Yukon and down into the Lower 48.

Dougie Maddox is the financially astute but socially naïve only son of a Fifth Avenue dynasty. His widowed mother, known as Lady Maud, has kept the 35-year-old on a short leash, but Dougie has crossed paths with Belinda Ross, the new Broadway songbird. He's mesmerized by her, but she seems besotted by him. When Belinda is found strangled late one night in a Times Square Automat, jealous, hot-tempered Dougie is the prime suspect. But British wit Noel Coward, along with Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and playwright Edna Ferber, team up to clear Dougie's name. Their investigation inevitably takes them deep into Belinda's circle and her past.