When Pru Marlowe takes a dog for a walk, she doesn't expect to find a body. But Spot, a service dog in training, has too good a nose not to lead her to the remains of the beautiful young woman, and despite her own best instincts, Pru can't avoid getting involved. The young woman seems to have been mauled by a wild cat - and Pru knows there have been no pumas in the Berkshire woods for years. And while Wallis, Pru's curmudgeonly tabby, seems fixated on the idea of a killer cat, Spot has been sending strange signals to Pru's own heightened senses, suggesting that the violent death was something more than a tragic accident. As motives multiply, a cougar of a different sort sets her eyes on Pru's sometime lover, and another woman disappears. With panther panic growing, Pru may have to put aside her own issues - and her own ideas of domesticity - to solve a savage mystery.