"Spring, 1935 finds the little Alabama town of Darling excited about their new local radio station, WDAR. But there are problems brewing at the newspaper, where a trio of new hires causes headaches for editor Charlie Dickens. That's not the worst of it, though, as the Dahlias discover when the newest resident at Bessie Bloodworth's Magnolia Manor is found dead. She had overindulged in a large and very rich chocolate cake--but was something else baked...

Happily loitering about London, c. 1949, with the intent of gathering material for her writing, Fleur Talbot finds a job ?on the grubby edge of the literary world? at the very peculiar Autobiographical Association. Mad egomaniacs writing their memoirs in advance ? or poor fools ensnared by a blackmailer? When the association?s pompous director steals Fleur?s manuscript, fiction begins to appropriate life.