Nina Quinn is a landscaper and the owner of Taken By Surprise, Garden Designs in Freedom, Ohio.  Taken by Surprise's main specialty is surprise garden makeovers.  Nina is hired by Lindsay Lockhart, who was her soon to be ex-husband's first wife.  Problem is, Lindsay has lied to Nina, so that when Nina believes she is doing a landscaping job for Lindsay, in reality she is working in Lindsay's neighbor's yard.   When the owner, Russ Grabinsky, comes home from work early he immediately keels over with a heart attack and dies right on his freshly dug up back yard.

Nina knew something was off about this job.  Why was she misled into redoing the neighbor’s yard instead of Lindsay's?  Nina had been played, she just didn't know why.  Neighbors don't normally pay twenty thousand dollars out of neighborly love to remodel someone else’s backyard - so what was their motivation?  The Lockharts' explanation for hiring her just wasn't ringing true.

The more she learns about Russ Grabinsky, the more she wonders why someone hadn't bumped him off long before now.  Nina begins digging for answers, weeding out the good from the bad to get to the root of the deception.