Invalided out of the police force after a shootout that almost killed her, antique dealer Rebecca Cloudwebb is delivering a pair of earrings to Flora Melkiot, elderly resident of the exclusive Olympus House condominiums. At Flora’s request, she brings them to the so-called Jewel exercise class—the better for her to show them off to the other women—where the newest member of the class, a suburban transplant named Laura Tyler, is horribly murdered by a dose of drain cleaner in her health water.

Though the Olympus House simply bristles with strong and somewhat unpleasant prominent women, all of whom have secrets, no one had anything against Laura Tyler. Most didn’t even know her. Rebecca wants nothing to do with the case, but Flora, disgusted with the way the police are—according to her—mishandling things, calmly blackmails Rebecca into helping her solve the case. Sublimely assured that she can do anything she puts her mind to, Flora digs into the histories of the women in the Jewel class, upsetting a lot of them in the process. Rebecca and Flora finally find the key to solving the murder of the unknown, inoffensive Laura Tyler, but only after finding themselves in danger from several directions, not the least of which is the dislike of the police.