Nancy encounters a mysterious saleswoman in a perfume shop, a curious man on the train, and then finds herself trying to decipher a strange code.

Nancy, Bess, and George investigate when it seems that local author Lacey O'Brien's book plots are coming true, including a fire, a sinking boat, and a missing statue.

We all waited while Henry trooped us back to the fire pit, where the cooler had been kept. He walked over to where it had been set the night before... and frowned. Then he looked around the fire pit, then back at the same spot, then at us. "You don't know where the food is?" Zoe asked incredulously. Henry shook his head. "It's not that," he said. "It's that I think the food's been... taken."

"Nancy's Alaskan adventure continues as she, Bess, and George disembark the mystery-plagued Arctic Star cruise ship and explore the grand sites of the forty-ninth state: Skagway; the Yukon territory, and Denali National Park. It's spectacular scenery, but things start to go wrong almost immediately, leading Nancy to believe that whoever was behind the unsolved mayhem aboard the ship has followed them onto dry land. The girl detectives had better watch...