Furious at her father for breaking up their family, Abbie Thompson acted without thinking and got arrested for malicious mischief. Now the judge has assigned her to volunteer in a program that matches teens with the elderly. But Abbie doesn't get just any elderly person. She gets Edna Merkel: a cranky, difficult woman who's a member of the town's crime prevention group. In fact, Mrs. Merkel is too active a member, and after she brags that she's onto something big, she's attacked and ends up hospitalized. Suddenly the private investigator game is real, and only Abbie -- with the help of Mrs. Merkel's indecipherable notebook -- can figure out who did it. But will Abbie get to the assailant before the assailant gets to her?