The skeleton found in the last book turns out to be that of a young woman in her late teens or early twenties, who has been dead for twenty years. Now it's up to the police chief John MacDougal to find out who she is and who murdered her. Added to this, Father O'Shawnessy discovers a dead body in his church, Our Lady of the Roses, which now gives John two murders to investigate with his girlfriend Catherine Jewell especially interested in the skeleton of the young girl after the girl's diary was found.