Six-year-old Peggy Ashcroft is missing and the distraught people of Elderberry, Georgia, scour the town and surrounding terrain as darkness descends on a freezing December day. Armed only with determination, Miss Dimple Kilpatrick carves out a search path all her own to find the child too sick to walk, and the wooded area too dark to find her way back.

Luckily, she comes upon the home of reclusive artist, Mae Martha Hawthorne, and her young companion, Suzy, who help ensure that Peggy returns home safe and sound. However, when Suzy becomes the chief suspect after Mae Martha is found murdered, Miss Dimple, her fellow teachers, and librarian friend, Virginia, set out to prove Suzy's innocence at great risk of their own.