Kinsey Millhone provides investigative services for fire and wrongful death claims for a company called CFI. She gets caught up in a scam and is trying to clear her own name before she loses her life. Kinsey starts out receiving a mysterious letter from the bank telling her that $5,000 has made it's way into her bank account. She thinks it is a minor glitch but soon realizes over the next couple days that it is much worse than that. Lance Wood at the Wood/Warren Company is being framed for arson and she is being named as his collaborator. She is put on leave and loses her office space. At this point she begins looking into things for herself. She talks to Lance Wood's family to see what she can find out and becomes friends with some of the Woods. She is at Lance's sister's house when a package explodes and kills his sister and almost kills Kinsey.

She finds out about a man named Hugh Case who died two years earlier, but his autopsy results disappeared after the body had been cremated. His widow swears that Lance Woods murdered her husband but there is no proof. As she begins to investigate, things get more complicated. She learns that someone at the company she previously was working for has set her up and enlists the help of the CFI receptionist to help her look around. They find no concrete evidence but know they are correct in their suspicions. Kinsey's ex-husband shows up and asks her to keep his expensive guitar for a few days but it turns out he was told to spy on her and the guitar is bugged. Lance's office is also bugged. Hugh Case's wife shows up in California about the time of the funeral for Lance's sister and is supposed to meet with Kinsey but doesn't show. The next day Kinsey finds her dead in front of her apartment. Kinsey begins to ask a lot of questions and talks to Lance's mother. She reveals to Kinsey that Lance and his sister, Olive, who passed away, had a sexual relationship for years when they were younger. Olive had never told her husband, but she and her younger brother Bass had an argument and for spite Bass told Olive's husband about the affair. Olive's husband's name is Terry Kohler but it turns out that isn't his real name. He killed his foster mother years before and because Olive was "tainted," he killed her as well. He tries to kill Kinsey in the final scene but she manages to kill him and get out as the bomb he left explodes in her apartment.