Millionaire philanthropist and newspaper columnist Jim Qwilleran's hopes for a peaceful spring season are squashed when he becomes involved in the investigation of the death of Widow Coggin, while at the same time trying to keep up with all the other strange happenings in Moose County.

Qwill, inheritor of the great Klingenschoen fortune, is living in a mansion in Moose County. With a staff of three and a limousine, he is at a loss as to how to cope with it all. To make matters worse, Koko has become fond of knocking Qwill's pigskin edition of Hamlet to the floor.

Thelma Thackeray, a native of Moose County, has achieved fame and fortune in Hollywood. Now 82, she has returned to Pickax to have some fun before she dies. Purchasing the old opera house, Thelma reopens it as a film club. But when the premier event, the Kit Kat Revue, sets the stage for murder, Jim Qwilleran and his perceptive Siamese cats are ready to spring into action.

Moose County, 400 miles north of everywhere, is in an uproar (good and bad) following vast inheritances from wealthy old families. Only "Cool Koko" knows what's happening . . . and he's not telling. Jim Qwilleran thinks it's because he has more whiskers than ordinary cats, but who's counting? Meanwhile... Koko meets a piano tuner. Polly goes to Paris. Qwill writes a play (an absurdist play titled The Cat Who Got Elected Dog Catcher). And there's a...

The team of Koko, the brilliant Siamese cat, and Qwilleran, the reporter with the perceptive moustache, is back in action -- with an adorable female Siamese, Yum Yum, added to the household. When Qwilleran decides to do a feature story on Junktown, he gets more than he bargained for. Not the dope den he anticipated, Junktown is a haven for antique dealers and collectors -- as strange a lot as the crafty reporter has ever encountered. When a mysterious...

The town of Pickax is celebrating the opening of a new play, and the opening of a new book store, but the death of an actor and the theft of a rare book change the mood. Koko's suspicion of a visitor focuses Qwilleran's investigation, along with Yum Yum's help of course.

Jim Qwilleran and his two cats move to the Potato mountains and get involved in the murder of a land developer.