As well as its advantages there are drawbacks to the enlightened village that is twenty-first-century Edinburgh where every Saturday night ears burn at dinner parties across the city & anyone requiring the investigative abilities of a philosophical soul knows where to find her. Jillian Mc Kinlay -- wife of a trustee of an illustrious school -- is the latest petitioner; she asks Isabel to look into a poison-pen letter that makes insinuations about applicants for the position of principal. Isabel's niece Cat has another new boyfriend who seems too good to be true. & when a pretty cellist with a tragic story takes a fancy to her husb&-to-be Isabel finds herself contemplating an act of heroic & alarming self-sacrifice.