Why would the village of Puddlebridge be so disturbed by the passing of Jo Garrity when he was eighty-eight and had a good life? Why would Rose Brown who worked for Garrity at his garage be so upset? What has been going on behind closed doors in the village? When Lucy Gwyn and Tony Dean appear in a ferment claiming to have seen Jo Garrity going into his house, emotions in the village begin to run high. The fact that Lucy and Tony are believed to smoke funny little plants Tony grows at the bottom of the garden, is completely overlooked. Before long the story the young people have told is on the Net and twisted so that rather than a ghost, it is an alien that has been seen. Alien hunters arrive and as it's the summer silly season so do the press.The people of the village find themselves in the spotlight as they are stripped naked, literally in at least one case. Into the arena steps Jo Garrity, daughter of the old man by his second wife and all but forgotten. She takes on his estate and his obligations, which include a number of accidents he left behind. The truth will out and it does as young Jo tries to clear up the mess left by the death of her father.