In Sister Mary Helen's latest venture as an inadvertent detective, the elderly nun must make do without her even more elderly sidekick, Sister Eileen. Eileen has gone back to Ireland to be with her dying sister, so Mary Helen has no one with whom to share her fears when the head of St. Francis College dies suddenly and is replaced by the coldly efficient Sister Patricia. Surely, Mary Helen feels, she will be swept aside as too old in the "clean sweep" that Sister Patricia is famous for in the order.

To her rescue comes young Sister Anne, who runs the Refuge, a shelter for homeless women. When a woman from the Refuge is found murdered in the alley, Sister Mary Helen goes to work searching for clues.

In this, the ninth in the author's series featuring the genuinely lovable, independent, and sensible Sister Mary Helen, listeners will be happy to find that age doesn't seem to be slowing her down a bit.