July, 1899, Bellevue Avenue. Emma Cross, editor-in-chief of the Newport Messenger, covers Newport's first-ever automobile parade. The festive atmosphere turns to shock as Philip King drunkenly swerves his motorcar into a wooden figure of a nanny pushing a pram on the obstacle course. That evening, at a dinner party hosted by Ella King, Emma and her beau Derrick Andrews are enjoying the food and the company when Ella's son staggers in, still inebriated. Following shouts, the guests rush out to find the family's butler pinned against a tree beneath the front wheels of Philip's motorcar, close to death. Was it an accident? The butler bullied his staff and took advantage of young maids, and Emma steers the police toward a murder investigation. -- adapted from jacket