Spring, with a full moon, arrives in tiny Park County, Tennessee and induces the well-named madness in its residents and visitors alike. Sheriff Tony Abernathy and his staff must slog through a morass of stupidity and bad behavior. The Ramp Festival at Sheriff Tony Abernathy's family's folk museum occurs during the peak of spring fever. The entertainment includes music, food—including the odiferous ramps—crafts and homemade weapons launching vegetables at rubber duckies floating in a stock tank. Chaos mixes with sudden death when a flying vegetable hits the unpopular game warden, Harrison Ragsdale, and he dies at the festival. Tony swore an oath to protect and serve everyone in his county. While he investigates, his wife Theo is busy running her quilt shop, raising their children and gathering clues at "gossip central." Stir in a growing roadside memorial, arson, a gala funeral, a little bank robbery and—like Theo's mystery quilt (pattern included)—eventually the solution is revealed.