Bear Falls's own elusive and highly secretive poet, Emily Sutton, has lived her life cloistered away with her sister. But now Emily has started leaving scraps of poetry in Dora's Little Library, and Dora makes it her mission to befriend the sheltered woman. Meanwhile, Zoe Zola is hard at work on a new book, this one about the inner life of Emily Dickinson. And once again, Zoe's literary work starts making uncanny connections with the events in her own world as Emily Sutton reemerges into society. But Zoe begins to suspect that things aren't anywhere near normal at Emily's swamp house or in the lives of the people she claims have abandoned her...until looking further into the poet's half-truths leads Zoe and Dora’s daughter, Jenny, to a horrible murder.

When Jenny Weston moves home to Bear Falls, Michigan, she’s faced with the ultimate mystery after her mother’s library is destroyed. The next door neighbor, Zoe Zola suspects local curmudgeon Adam Cane, but when he’s suddenly found dead in Zoe’s fairy garden, all roads lead back to her. Jenny believes Zoe is innocent, and the two team up to find the true culprit.