Harriet "Harry" Wild, is a recently retired English professor who finds herself at one of life's crossroads. Jolted from a mugging, she reluctantly agrees to recover in the home of her son, Charlie, a senior police detective. Harry starts to interfere in a particularly baffling murder case Charlie is investigating when she notices the murder shares striking similarities to an obscure Elizabethan play. When her path crosses that of her mugger, Fergus Reid, Harry sees great potential in the troubled teen and, instead of turning him in, enlists him as her sidekick. Following her successful, albeit ill-advised, involvement in the case, Harry discovers a new lust for life as she and Fergus find new mysteries to solve.