Set in the weeks just before the annual Inversgail Literature Festival in Scotland, Plaid and Plagiarism begins on a morning shortly after the four new owners have taken possession of their new bookshop in the Highlands. Unfortunately, Janet Marsh’s move into her house has been delayed due to vandalism; she’s convinced the vandal is Una Graham, an advice columnist for the local paper who’s trying to make a name for herself as an investigative reporter. Then, when the women go to look for clues that might tell them to who is guilty, they find Una Graham's corpse (murder!) in Janet’s garden shed. Constable Hobbs answers their emergency call. He’s calm and quietly pleased, as he’s never had a murder case. Then the contents of a dozen or so garbage bags are discovered behind the bookshop. The letters inside are nasty. They explain in minute detail how and when each of the recipients has hurt Una. The more the women find out about Una, the more people they discover who detested her and aren’t sad she’s gone. If Janet and her bookshop crew are reading the clues right, they’re about to expose the most sensational story the town of Inversgail has ever heard.