The game is set in 1930, at the beginning of the Great Depression in the small fictional town of Titusville. Nancy Drew has been asked to come to the Lilac Inn to see Emily Crandall, whom Nancy knows only through a mutual friend. Emily's mother died a month ago, leaving her to run the inn with the help of her guardian, Jane Willoughby. Emily and her mother had been counting on the generosity of their kindly but strange neighbor, Josiah Crowley, to leave them part of his estate to support the inn they own. But in his will, everything was left to Richard Topham, his ESP teacher. When Nancy arrives at the inn, she encounters a mystery involving stolen jewels, a missing will, car chases, and plenty of adventure.