When legendary folk singer Lara Fairplay agrees to make her comeback debut at Pirate's Cove's annual maritime music festival, everyone in the quaint seaside village is delighted-including mystery bookstore owner and sometimes amateur sleuth, Ellery Page.

Better yet, Lara is scheduled to perform a recently discovered piece of music attributed to "The Father of American Music," Stephen Foster, which will hopefully bring large crowds and a lot of business.

Several mysterious accidents later, Ellery is less delighted as his suspicion grows that someone plans to silence the celebrity songbird forever.