The year? 1930. The place? The road to Titusville, where we find Nancy Drew behind the wheel of her blue roadster, pondering this question: why did Emily Crandall – a girl whom Nancy knows only through their mutual friend, Helen Corning – ask Nancy to drive all the way out to Lilac Inn to see her?

Does it have something to do with the fact that Emily's mother died barely a month earlier, leaving Emily to run the restaurant with only her guardian to help her?

And more important, why, when she called, did Emily sound so desperate?

The spunky teenager turns off the main road, blissfully unaware that Emily isn't all that awaits her at the end of the driveway. No, Nancy Drew is about to get her first taste of the mystery, intrigue and adventure that are to become her destiny.