Visiting her favorite aunt in Minnesota, genealogist Torie O'Shea learns that her aunt has discovered the 150-year-old diary of a young Swedish woman whose life turned violent after falling in love with a man forbidden to her.

Running for her life when someone starts shooting during the first bird-watching Olympics of New Kassell, Missouri, genealogist Torie O'Shea stumbles upon a badly beaten corpse that may have ties to her own family history.

Torie O'Shea, president of the historical society in New Kassel, Missouri, has plans to turn a historic house up for sale into a textile museum. The house has a tragic family history involving three sibling suicides in the nineteen twenties. Mrs. O'Shea eventually has to learn the secrets behind their deaths to solve present-day crimes.