When 80-year-old Clovis Patterson, an antique dealer and estate appraiser on the Eastern Shore (Delmarva Peninsula), finds that someone has stolen some of her prized rare books which she inherited from a sister and had to steal to get in the first place, she contacts the one person she knows and trusts, Margaret Anne Philips.  Margaret Anne is an aging writer living in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. and was instrumental in helping Clovis steal her rare book inheritance.  She is a reluctant co-conspirator in retrieving Clovis's stolen books from a surprising "robber."  Thus Clovis becomes caught up in first edition and rare book madness.