The family circle is all Daisy and Freddie have longed for. But sometimes a circle can close ... and constrict ... and kill.

Daisy and Freddie Linden and their friends arrive in Port Townsend, only to be arrested as spies and brought before the most feared man in the Wild West- "Hanging" Judge Wilson Bonnell. But the unexpected intervention of an old friend plucks them out of the frying pan and tosses them into the glittering whirl of local society, where Freddie wonders if she could be in love at last. But they're still standing too close to the fire-when a long-sought and familiar figure is spotted on the beach, bending over the lifeless body of the judge.

Have they finally located their beloved father, only to have him clapped in gaol by the Royal Canadian Airborne Police? In a dizzying descent from society belles to social pariahs, Daisy and Freddie now have only themselves to rely on. And they have less than a week to force the killer into the light before their beloved father hangs for a crime he didn't commit.