Kinsey Millhone is actually taking a vacation. Thanksgiving is quickly approaching and she has promised to stand up at the wedding of two good friends, but that doesn't stop her from taking on a case. Her good friend and landlord has asked her to talk to the Lees. Johnnie Lee recently passed away, and the family was hoping to get some money from the government to put toward his funeral expenses. He was was a World War II veteran, but their is no record of his service.

After visiting with Lee's grandson, who gives her a tour of Johnnie's apartment, Kinsey thinks there is very little she can do to help, but guilt keeps her involved. This is particularly true when Johnnie's apartment is hit with a burglary shortly after she meets Ray Rawson.

Ray was an old friend of Johnnie's from the war years. He had come to visit Johnnie not knowing that his friend had recently passed away. He is attacked during one of the robberies. With just a bit of luck, Kinsey happens to spy one of the burglars, a young woman who is very pregnant and carrying a duffel bag from the apartment.

Kinsey follows her to the airports and ends up on an impromptu flight to Florida, but she and the mysterious woman disembark during a stop over in Dallas. From this point on, Kinsey finds herself being drawn deeper into a decades-old mystery involving a number of men and a secret cache of money. No one involved in the situation is who they seem to be, and it is hard for Kinsey to tell between friend and enemy, though Ray Rawson's mother could be a tougher version of Grandma Mazur from the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich.

To make matters even more challenging, Kinsey is doing the case pro bono. She is stuck pursuing the case not for a client but out of a bit of curiosity and a need for someone to help her fund a flight home during the crazy Thanksgiving weekend so she can keep her promise to be a bridesmaid.

As with most of the books in the series, Grafton takes great care with the details, and she populates St. Teresa and the locations Kinsey visits with interesting and realistic people. My only problem is that when the book is done, everyone's motives are clear, but Johnnie's family is never given a chance to partake in the solution. So, in a way Kinsey solves the case, but never really reports back to the original family ... and it leaves a number of new questions unanswered.