A wilting summer heat wave -- as well as faculty air-conditioning -- is bringing out the worst in the tenants of Martha Patterson's Greenwich Village apartment building. Martha, a retired attorney blessed with common sense and a septuagenarian's practicality, agrees to join the co-op board to help facilitate some badly needed change. It's a thankless and difficult job -- and a deadly one when the president of the board, Arnold Stern, is murdered.

Martha soon discovers Stern was decidedly unpopular for many interesting reasons. A trail of suspicion leads to several of the tenants, including her neighbor and good friend, an ailing archaeologist whose priceless Greek antiquity becomes a subtle but crucial clue. Ironically, it's the innocent secret of a little girl that exposes the killer -- and unravels a murder prompted by greed, jealousy . . .and undoubtedly, the heat.

After ten days visiting her son and his family in California, retired attorney Martha Patterson returns to New York City after an all day trek home. Just wanting to go to sleep in her air conditioned Greenwich Village apartment, Martha finds the cooling device is broken and the hotter than a match stick heat unbearably wilting her brain. Perhaps it is jet lag, a senile moment, or just heat stroke but Martha insanely agrees to run for the cooperative board at the urging of her irate neighbors.
Management representative Rashida Grant needs to obtain a copy of the air conditioning maintenance contract to give to the board's lawyer. Her efforts to reach the board president Arnold Stern have failed and since he listed Martha in case of an emergency she calls her to enter his apartment. They find someone murdered the vilified Arnold. NYPD Homicide Detective White quickly learns that everyone detested Arnold. Though quite reluctantly, Martha begins her own inquiries.

Though the amateur sleuth elements depend too heavily on coincidence, fans will rejoice with the third Martha Patterson Greenwich Village cozy. Martha and the other tenants provide a slice of small village life within the high rise New York tenement. The action is mostly off screen, but fans will enjoy summer in the city with no spoons full of love shared by any of the cast.