Samantha Jane Cummings is organized, creative, and resourceful but terribly frustrated in her corporate job. With some prodding from her Aunt Reggie, she quits her job to take on a short-term assignment as the Fortieth Black Squirrel Ball coordinator at Peaceland Park. Sam wanted to make this Ball the best ever - to raise the most money, regain her professional confidence, and make her family proud. After all, she was in charge of the event that her grandfather, the former superintendent of Peaceland Park, founded forty years ago.
However, while working with volunteers with strong personalities, recruiting new corporate sponsors, and ensuring every last detail of the event is perfect, Sam learns that the inaugural co-chairperson, Pauli Suarez, mysteriously died in the park the evening of the first ball.
Was it an accident? If it was, how could a park that Sam's grandfather ensured was safe and secure be the location of a tragic accident? Or was it murder? And if it was, why was this much-loved successful woman killed? And more importantly, why hasn't the mystery been solved in forty years? Is she in over her head or will she exceed even her expectations by managing the best "Black Squirrel Ball" ever?