Small town sports reporter James F. "Jimmy" McFarland II has a rather unusual life. Other than the usual trials; job, wife, children etc, Jimmy has a very large very eccentric family. His parents, five aunts, and other peculiar relations live within shouting distance of him and each other making his life anything but boring. When his favorite aunt and family genealogist, Zephyr, dies suddenly she leaves instructions in her will that Jimmy is to promote a novel that she has written, unbeknownst to the rest of the clan. This work of fiction is soon discovered to be a thinly veiled tell all concerning one of the area's more prominent families and one member of this family isn't too happy about it. When another aunt dies Jimmy begins to suspect that this agitated townsperson has something to do with these aunt's deaths as well as another who died under less than ideal circumstances years before.