Katie Warren didn't want her husband to die— not really—but he did. A year later, Katie is plagued by guilt for wishing him dead and by the anger she still harbors toward him for betraying her. She has given up her volunteers gigs, called a cease-fire in the pageant war between her daughter and mother and has begun, sadly, to neglect even her most prized possession: her looks. Cross Springs has given Katie all the grieving time it can spare. She is pressured to run a new church program and the save Women's League’s annual fundraiser—punishment for leading every group she ever joined and doing a great job. Her best friend is throwing single men at her—punishment for being forty-five and still having a tiara-worthy face. Worst of all, her every move is once again headline news on the local gossip blog. She has no idea what that is punishment for.

Knowing she can't move on with her new life until she gets closure on her defunct one, she pokes into her husband's mysterious affair. Her sleuthing is hampered by her meddling mother, her rebellious daughter, Cross Springs (where nothing is as it seems) and the anonymous blogger. What her probing turns up about her husband makes her realize she has lived life according to what others expected of her sash-and-scepter self and only expected what they were willing to give her in return. But life has changed and Katie finds out she has, too. She decides to take some chances, claim happiness for herself and put a stop to the Tiara Wars once and for all—on her terms.