Newly moved to the English Cotswolds, Gemma Cameron desperately wants to create the kind of idyllic life she’s read about in her favorite mystery novels with herself as the leading lady who pulls it all together. But Gemma is more adept at solving mysteries than baking a cake and grasping social niceties, and fitting in proves more difficult than she imagined. She finds a friend in Peggy, a young woman recently moved to town herself, and Ursula, an enigmatic figure who sparks controversy in the small-town gossip network.

And as Gemma spends more time with her neighbor Ursula, she begins to suspect all those novels are affecting her thinking. The oddities she starts to notice must be her imagination because, if not, they point to something far more dangerous than winning the local baking contest or being placed on the church committee. Could her neighbor be a real spy?

Following her instincts and a few skills learned through fiction, Gemma—with Peggy acting as her trusty sidekick—soon becomes embroiled in an international intrigue involving the village’s mysterious benefactor, Lady Beatrice, MI5, and the KGB. In an unexpected twist, however, Ursula asks Gemma for a favor which may endanger all their lives.