Sookie Stackhouse once tried to keep her mind-reading capabilities secret, but the word is definitely out in Bon Temps, Louisiana, her hometown, leading local police to call on her to help find a missing child. There's a new man, were-tiger Quinn, in the picture, too, but on their first date, two were-people attack them. Sookie isn't sure whether she or Quinn was the target but is soon distracted by a more pressing problem. Cousin Hadley, a vampire, has been murdered, and Sookie has inherited her apartment, meaning she has to go to New Orleans to uncover the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death and meet with Hadley's lover, the Vampire Queen herself