Hollis Grant is back, but this time she's in Toronto, hoping for a quiet summer of study. Hollis is a painter and she hopes to spend some time taking a course in painting at the College of Art from her best friend's husband. But the murder of her friend's secretive stepson puts an end to those plans. Hollis soon discovers all is not as it seems. Was the stepson the real target or is it his brother or his father, famous artist, and Hollis's instructor? What clandestine lives have the young man and his father hidden from the family? Would someone kill them because of their secrets?