When an old friend of New York Sentinel Crosswords editor Tess Harper is found murdered on the very day the Sentinel's crossword puzzle includes his proposal of marriage, Tess unofficially teams up with Lt. Logan O'Connor to find the killer. Together, they must assemble the pieces of a puzzle whose origins go all the way back to WWII Europe.

After several of her puzzles are linked to the murder of an art gallery owner, a crossword puzzle editor teams up with a no nonsense detective to stop a killer in their midst.