Now that Meg Corey's apples have been harvested and sold, she's enjoying some free time. Especially since she's snowed in without power or heat. Luckily her maybe-boyfriend Seth is keeping her company, and agrees to help her clean out the house. In a dusty corner Meg finds an early 19th-century silk sampler embroidered with apple trees, with names she doesn't recognize. Then Meg starts being plagued by a series of increasingly serious mishaps.

While orchard owner Meg Corey dreads the labor of manual irrigation to stave off a drought, her boyfriend, Seth, couldn't be more excited about doing historic renovation on one of Granford's oldest houses. Tagging along as he picks up supplies is supposed to give Meg a much-needed break, but the trip turns rotten when she almost trips over a dead body at an old saw mill's forest reserve. But the body isn't the only frightening discovery she makes....

"It's harvest time, and Meg Corey and her fiancé, Seth, are racing to beat the New England winter. Meg and her workers are bringing in her apple crop while Seth is restoring an old building in town. Then Seth's project is set back by the discovery of a skeleton under the building--and worse, a young man related to one of Meg's former pickers is found dead behind the feed store. With the couple's carefully laid plans spoiled, Meg can't help but wonder:...

When newcomer Monica Whitman falls ill and dies, supposedly due to food poisoning, orchard owner Meg Corey Chapin investigates and soon discovers that there is one bad apple in the bunch as it becomes clear that Monica was murdered.