Investigative journalist Jay McCormick is on a secret assignment in the Washington D.C. area. But he also takes time to visit his old flame Louise Eldridge. His visit is cut short when he surfaces as a corpse in a neighbor's fish pond. Louise wants to know who put him there? And what was the mysterious story he was investigating in D.C.? Only Louise can unearth the trail that leads from a missing computer to a pistolpacking intruder trampling her purplespotted toad lilies. Soon she's digging up enough dirt to uproot some of Washington's top players...if she doesn't get herself nipped in the bud first!