Apple orchard owner Meg Corey is finally feeling settled into her new life in Granford--she's made friends, and her relationship with Seth Chapin is heating up--when her old Boston coworker Lauren Converse comes barreling into town, running the Congressional campaign for a former hometown football hero. But Meg doesn't have time to worry about why Seth seems reluctant to back Lauren's campaign when her neighbor, local dairy farmer Joyce Truesdell, is found dead from an apparent kick to the head from one of her cows.

When an autopsy shows that the fatal blow actually came from a weapon, Meg is even more troubled. Popular opinion points to Joyce's husband as the culprit, but Meg can't help wondering if someone wanted the outspoken dairy farmer out of the way--but why? She'll have to find out who had a beef with the victim, before she's the next one to get creamed....