Beth Richardson Gutcheon

The owner of a high-end dress shop on Manhattan's Upper East Side, Loviah "Lovie" Walker must find a way to bridge the chilly gulf between her two closest friends, which was the result of a perceived slight from decades ago that led to tragedy.

Determined to keep their inheritance from dividing them, close siblings Eleanor, Monica, and Jimmy Moss struggle with differences of opinion about how to share and maintain their late parents' summer house.

At a reception for the faculty and trustees to welcome Maggie Detweiler's team, no one seems keener for all to go well than Florence Meagher, a star teacher who is loved and respected in spite of her affliction - that she can never stop talking. Two days later, Florence's body is found in the campus swimming pool. Maggie obviously knows schools, but she also knows something about investigating murder.