Everyone is delighted when Lisa's long-lost Uncle Gus makes a surprise appearance at the family reunion, but the next day he turns up dead.

It promises to be a busy week for Hanna Swensen. Not only is she whipping up treats for the chamber of commerce at the fair; she is also judging the banking contest, acting as a magician's assistant for her business partner's husband; trying to coach Moishe, her previously rapacious feline, to en his hunger strike, and performing her own private carnival act by juggling the demands of her mother and sisters.

With the launch party for her mother's novel around the corner, bakery owner Hannah Swensen has a dress to fit into and a date with her sister at Lake Eden's new health club, Heavenly Bodies. Dragging herself out of bed on a frigid morning for exercise is bad enough. Discovering a dead body in the gym's jacuzzi? Okay, that's worse. Nor does it help that there's a plate of The Cookie Jar's cream puffs garnishing the murder scene.

"With her dream of opening The Cookie Jar taking shape, Hannah's life matches the hectic December hustle and bustle in Lake Eden--especially when she agrees to help recreate a spectacular Christmas Ball from the past in honor of Essie Granger, an elderly local in hospice care. But instead of poring over decadent dessert recipes for the merry festivities, she instantly becomes enthralled by Essie's old notebooks and the tale of a woman escaping danger...