For literary agent and sometime sleuth Charlie Greene, Boulder is more than her hometown, it's the place she escaped from sixteen years ago. But now that she's back with her wayward daughter caring for her even more wayward mother, Charlie finds herself face to face with problems she can't run away from. Chinook winds are blowing a mountain wildfire perilously close to the city. Her mother's pet rats have disappeared, along with most of the cats in the neighborhood.