Brenda Sheffield wishes her father would respond to her invitations to visit Sheffield Bed and Breakfast. So far, only silence answers her calls and letters. That her once loving father chooses to widen the gap in their relationship is the only thing missing from Brenda’s happiness. Above all, she hopes he will accept the invitation to her wedding that is coming up in less than a month. Tim Sheffield cannot understand why his only daughter wishes to marry someone who has the lowly career as detective of a small police force in a town like Sweetfern Harbor. 

When Tim arrives without anyone knowing he is coming, he demands a room in an already-booked weekend. It is Thanksgiving, and Sweetfern Harbor has many tourists arriving by the hour. Brenda’s bed-and-breakfast has been booked for months. She knows if she sends her father to the local hotel, he may very well fast return to Michigan rather than stick around with her. There is only one solution, and that is to book the tourist couple Rachel and Nick Bernard into the historic hotel in town. She assures the upset couple, who opted to stay beyond their two-night booking, that the inn will foot the bill for a luxurious room in the historic hotel. 

A day later, the Sheffield Bed and Breakfast float is completed and ready for the celebratory parade downtown. Brenda is ready to pitch candy to onlookers, but above all, she is determined to win first place in the float contest. Along the route, she is out of candy and reaches down into the overflow bin of candy only to grasp the hand of a dead body. 

From then on, the estrangement between herself and her father only deepens when fingers point to Tim Sheffield as the murderer of the victim. Brenda decides it is up to her to find the real killer and divert attention from her father. She must sift through aliases and forge ahead. There is no way she can marry Mac Rivers, detective, until her father is cleared since Mac can’t remove Tim Sheffield from his list of suspects. Brenda wonders if her relationship with her father will recover under the adverse circumstances ahead of her.