Lady Margaret Huntington (Meg) is the dyslexic daughter of a Duke who longs for escape from her dull, proper existence. Meg's older sister is still unmarried, so Meg is forced to stay at Hampford Castle with her father instead of going to London for the Season. She feels like one of her father's exotic pets-an animal in a cage. Her dull existence changes when a new handsome tutor arrives to help with her reading. She gives him a tour of the estate and they find a human body in the lion's cage. Meg soon learns that most of the small village of Tewsbury had a reason to kill the Justice of the Peace, Sir Sylvester Lumley. She decides to solve the murder herself and it takes all of her intelligence and a little magic just to stay alive.