Precious Ramotswe is confronted with a balance of business and personal challenges. The latter involves the arrival of her former husband. He has heard that she is remarried and wants to remind her that they had never gotten a legal divorce. While he is a successful musician, he is always willing to take advantage of a situation to gain a profit. He has decided to blackmail her with telling everyone, including the Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni that she was already married when she wed the most gentlemanly mechanic. It is going to take all of her wit to find away out of this bind.

As if that weren't enough, our "traditionally built heroine is confronted with a man hiding under her bed one evening. He was clearly in the home in the hopes of taking something, but he escapes with nothing ... not even his pants.

And that isn't the only theft she is confronted with. When her beloved white van has engine troubles on the road out of Lubotsi, she must walk back into town. Unfortunately, when Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni drives out to tow it back, he finds that someone else has already taken it.

Charlie, one of the less-than-qualified apprentices who work for the garage, quits after he finds love in the form of an older woman with quite a bit of wealth. Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi work to find out more about the woman and learn that they should step in before Charlie gets hurt.

Of course, Charlie's absense means that the garage is going to need another worker. Mma Ramotswe runs into (literally) a gentleman named Mr. Polopetsi. He has had a string of bad luck after being wrongly accused of a crime while working years earlier as a pharmacist's assistant. Now, he is out of prison and ready to work hard and do anything he can to rebuild his life.

Mma Makutsi has decided to try out some dance lessons. In recent months, her success as an assistant detective and with running the Kalahari Typing School for Men has left her with some extra income, and she thinks this might be a great way to enlarge her social circle. While many of the woman are less than kind, she finds her self befriending a man named Phuti Radiphuti. None of the other girls will dance with because he is such a terrible dancer.

Of course, there are the usual interesting cases, such as the one requiring Mma Ramotswe to step in and play diplomat with a group of Zimbabweans, but as you can see everyone is quite busy.

Reading these books is like visiting old friends and catching up. The characters are so richly drawn, and the troubles they get into are just so down to earth. I do have to admit that I would love to try the bush tea that is such a favorite for Mma Ramotswe. There is even a funny scene between Grace and Precious over bush tea that results in an odd thing happening to their teapot. I can't wait to see where life will take them in the next book.