Annie McMuffit must infuse her new business, Annie's Attic, with a large amount of hard cash or abandon her long-time desire to own an antique shop. Joe Carter offers Annie a money-spinning job evaluating the contents of a ten-room Victorian house, his recent inheritance. Annie, a novice at appraising antiques but desperate for money, accepts the job. While Annie works and stays at the isolated, menacing Carter house, someone tries to frighten her away. She proves why her nickname is Granite-head and stays her course. After Annie reads a collection of diaries she finds in a secret compartment of an old armoire, the discovery leads her-as a wannabe detective-in a new direction when she sets forth to solve an old murder.