While in Washington, D.C., Jessica gets involved in one of Michael Hagarty's cases when an East German musician who is working as a political spy, looks to defect to the United Kingdom. While Jessica tries to make sense of things, she and Michael try to sort things out when one of the operatives working with the defector ends up murdered. Little do they know it somehow includes Jessica's concert-going escort and some time spent in South Africa by both men in the past.

A group of young treasure hunters come to Cabot Cove looking for sunken treasure but after one dies and the other is arrested for her murder, Jessica gets involved both to clear a young man she believes is innocent and to help an old friend she knows tends not to be.