During nighttime fireworks at Coffee Creek's first official barbecue cook-off, deep in Texas Hill Country, lawyer Alice MacDonald Greer trips over the murdered body of a sharp-tongued food writer. The hotly competitive grill-masters all possess sharp knives and stout alibis. With local law enforcement baffled, the mystery darkens when a malevolent stalker pursues Alice and her engaging but secretive client Caswell, using arson, assault and highway terror. In her struggle to protect her client, Alice finds herself needing far more than her legal skills to survive. She must navigate a dangerous maze of puzzles as she wrestles with an age-old question: just how far will humans go to preserve the version of themselves they want the world to see?