Alexis Pope's life has come undone. Just when she thought she'd found a life of guaranteed security and comfort, her husband's death in a sky-diving accident has cast her into self-imposed solitary confinement in her Northern California suburban mansion. Unsure as to whether she'll ever stop grieving, or whether she'll ever want to, it's no wonder she's reluctant to accept her gay cousin Jeffrey's offer to come up and work at the Russian River resort where Jeffrey runs the dining room. Then, a revelation in the form of a nosy fundamentalist neighbor signals enough. Enough hiding, enough lethargy. Little suspecting she's almost literally jumping from the frying pan into the fire, Alex plunges into the refreshingly frantic world of restaurant resort cooking and dining in the funky chic town of Guerneville, California. Unfortunately, when it finally seems she's climbing out of her malaise, a series of increasingly vicious events at the resort forces her to revive her abandoned skills as a self-defense instructor and--to her great dismay--face up to her own involvement in her husband's death.