When a wealthy bachelor dies at the autumn ball, a young lady takes on the improper role of detective in a comedy full of action.

The dynamic Beatrice Steele is not exactly a "proper young lady": she is terrible at embroidery, has no musical skills, and her painting is so bad it frightens people. However, she follows crimes in the newspapers with great passion. Otherwise, she lives a perfectly pleasant life with her matchmaking mother, her prankster father, and her two younger sisters – the beautiful Louisa and the colorless Mary.

At the ball, Beatrice tries to be the epitome of propriety. Suddenly, in the middle of a minuet, the sought-after bachelor Edmund Croaksworth drops dead. Outside, the storm rages, and the evening turns into a frenzy of panic, fear, and betrayal, as it becomes clear that everyone is trapped with a murderer. Beatrice must transcend decorum and propriety to bring justice – before another murder occurs.

In the English countryside, there was a small town called Swampshire,* with many wonderful manor houses and a disgusting swamp. This was the home – one of the manor houses, not the swamp of course – of Beatrice Steele. In the swamp lived countless frogs that glowed in the dark. The sight at night was impressive, although the constant croaking discouraged some who might otherwise have chosen to settle in the charming village. Beatrice Steele was plump, with a cute gap in her front teeth and a white streak in her black curls, which she had acquired during a particularly competitive round of whist.** She was passionate and witty, which made her beloved by friends and family – most of the time. Since Beatrice was naturally curious, she observed a lot, felt deeply, and wondered greatly about life outside her village. Others considered this behavior much ado about nothing, as Beatrice would surely settle with some young man from Swampshire in a manor house not infested with frogs, start a family, and live happily ever after.

This was the expected course for a lady, because in Swampshire there were strict rules of propriety. Years ago, the town's founder, Baron Fitzwilliam Ashbrook, left the noisy city of London for the countryside, seeking a place he could shape based on the principles of perfect etiquette. Within a few months, he drafted a pamphlet proclaiming these principles: The Swampshire Guide. Believing that women were particularly susceptible to temptation, he wrote the accompanying books The Ladies' Guide to Behavior in Swampshire, volumes I and II. He also wrote The Ladies' Guide to Behavior in Swampshire (Travel Edition), so that no woman would find herself in an inappropriate position while on the move. These books formed the foundation of Swampshire's social scene.