January arrives in Lancaster, and the whole town is fascinated by a serialized mystery story running in the local newspaper. Things take a strange turn when Jan becomes convinced that she’s found a cryptic code embedded in the text of the mystery, and things get even stranger when Elaine begins to suspect that the story’s villain is modeled after her! Can the intrepid cousins discover who is behind the not-socomplimentary story—and what the coded clues reveal? Meanwhile, Jan, increasingly consumed with the details of her upcoming wedding to Bob, is faced with the difficult task of securing a location for her wedding tea, until help arrives from a surprising source.