"The past is never dead. It's not even past." William Faulkner said it first, but Bella realizes how true that sentiment is while visiting the Belvedere Museum in Vienna and viewing examples of “degenerate art,” so-defined by Adolph Hitler back in the 1930’s.  In fact, reminders of the Nazi era are everywhere in Eastern Europe, and Bella finds that the events of that time are still exerting their influence today.  But some of the passengers cruising the Rhine-Main-Danube Rivers on the M/S River Muse will never again need to worry about these things, or anything else.

It was meant to be an idyllic cruise on the Danube, filled with castles and romance.  But first the omelet maker disappeared, and then a body was found in the refrigerator, and Bella Sarver and her new husband, Art Halperin, were suddenly up to their necks in murder - again.  Past history and drama play havoc with the present in this newest adventure of artist-turned-amateur sleuth Bella Sarver.