Chloe's boyfriend, Josh, works at the hot restaurant, Simmer. Simmer is five months old and Josh is working hard to get it past month six. Chloe is finishing up her master's degree in social work, but missing her chef boyfriend who is working so hard and long he has permanent bags under his eyes. Then strange things start happening at Simmer. Knives go missing, people are stealing, and one of the waitresses has been killed. Chloe tries to use her social work skills to discover the killer. Is it Adrianna, Chloe's best friend, or Adrianna's fiance, Owen?

It is spring in Boston, and Simmer, the new restaurant on the affluent Newbury Street, has been open for five months. Chloe Carter and her boyfriend, Josh Driscoll, have dinner at Simmer with their friends. Everything goes smoothly until the next morning, when Chloe discovers the body of the waitress who served them the night before, Leandra, in the back of a truck. Even though it is finals week, Chloe finds time to uncover new clues to the murder. Just when she thinks she knows who killed Leandra, something completely unexpected happens: Chloe is kidnapped by the murderer.