Ellie can't believe her luck: instead of a dreary English winter, she's enjoying an unexpected vacation in sunny Florida... and things get even more exciting when she's roped in to judge the annual Key Lime Pie Contest at her beach resort. The rivalry is fierce, the recipes are daring, but nobody expects the event to end in murder! Before long, Ellie is swapping comfy cabanas and sugar-white sand for some serious sleuthing. She soon discovers that everyone has something to hide. Are the contestants really as innocent as they say? Does the resort chef still hold a vindictive grudge? And what was the victim's wife really doing on the night of the murder?

Meanwhile, Ellie finds that there are other dangers lurking at the resort, such as being robbed at beak-point by Hemingway the parrot! Then there's her simmering chemistry with the hunky resort doctor--a distraction she doesn't need. Help comes from Mojito the resort cat, who has a nose for clues, but it turns out that this mystery has more twists than a conch shell. If Ellie doesn't solve the case soon, she's going to find that Florida's famous pie is really "to die for"...