Jessica heads off to New York to begin teaching and has difficulty finding an apartment. She finally gets one that she likes, only to learn that a murder recently took place in the apartment complex and that someone desperately wants something that is inside her apartment. She's relieved when Seth comes to New York to check up on her, and enlists his help in cracking the case.
Former policeman Wallace Evans, now a professor, challenges Jessica to a race to solve a series of muggings on campus, and the muggings soon escalate to murder.
After Jane Dawson informs Jessica of her plans to write an unauthorized biography on her good friend Ellen Lombard, Ellen's husband Arthur comes under suspicion when Jane's sister and husband find her dead body electrocuted after a T.V. was dropped in her hot tub, and Arthur is seen leaving the house.
When his younger brother Wayne, the family's black sheep, becomes chief suspect in the murder of his employer, Sherrif Metzger relies on Jessica to help him keep his perspective about the case.
Evidence points to the battered wife of a powerful businessman as his killer, but Jessica establishes that there is a long list of suspects who wished him dead.
The theft of a priceless artifact from Mexico City museum leads Jessica into a labyrinth of clues, where murder is the fact behind the Mask of Montezuma.
