Jekyl Hardy is hosting a Mardi Gras party in his French Quarter apartment, amid Zydeco rhythms and popping champagne corks. On a wild night like this, anything can happen. The guests--including scrapbook-store owner Carmela Bertrand--never imagine it will be murder. But as the evening progresses, Jekyl's neighbor, float designer Archie Baudier, is found on the balcony choked to death with a barbed wire garrote. Buried up to her neck in strange clues, Carmela is sure of only one thing: whoever killed Archie is now following her--straight into the madness of Mardi Gras.