While visiting a friend in the South, Jessica discovers that backstabbing among family members is pretty common when her host is found dead and has left his estate to his beloved dog as a result. Furious about getting nothing, the man's family begin looking for a way to break the will in an attempt to get their hands on his money. When the dog's caretaker is found dead and the dog appears to be the likely culprit, Jessica begins to suspect that the jilted heirs are working together to get what they think is theirs.

Jessica and the police are baffled by a seemingly driver-less car that suddenly appears in Cabot Cove and runs down a visitor who had fired local inventor Dan O'Brien.