Stone Van Patten, has recently renovated an old mansion in the historic region of the small town of Rockdale, Missouri, into a thriving bed and breakfast. Stone's girlfriend, forty-nine year-old widow, Lexie Starr, and her daughter, Wendy, decide to promote the inn by turning it into a haunted house in late October. But when the young man Lexie hires, to dress as a vampire and scare the children, turns up dead in the makeshift coffin in the parlor, Lexie decides to get involved with the murder investigation to help protect the integrity of Stone's new business venture. After all, the inn is still in its infancy when this second death, that of Walter Sneed, occurs there. Lexie fears people will think of the inn as a real haunted house and not encourage their family and friends to patronize the establishment while visiting Rockdale. While trying to shield her impulsive actions from Stone, who wants only to protect her, Lexie soon discovers a number of people who might have a motive to kill young Walter. Like the local police department, she has trouble pin-pointing the killer when several individuals appear to have an axe to grind with the victim.