Theda Krakow is in a funk. Her sometime boyfriend's gone for good. The death of her beloved cat opened a bigger void. And the career leap she's made from copy editor to freelance writer has left her finances -- and her spirit -- flat. She desperately needs a headline to get her life back on track. One day, out for a stroll in her Cambridge neighborhood, Theda spies an adorable stray kitten. This charmer leads Theda to an old woman holed up in a decrepit...

Caught up in her probe into a dangerous new designer drug, reporter Theda Krakow puts her investigation on hold when an animal rights activist, who had been struggling to rescue feral cats on the eve of a ferocious winter storm, is killed in a hit-and-run accident.