Metamorphosis isn't all it's cracked up to be. But when a private investigator with dryad ancestry has to find her ex's killer, she might have to embrace it. Ngaire is desperate for a case to pay the bills. She needs to feed herself and her teenage daughter, not to mention paying the rent. But the case she gets turns out to be more challenging than she was prepared for when it turns out to be a murder investigation. As a part-dryad, she's able to use some non-standard investigative procedures. But partial metamorphosis isn't much fun, and it's not something she wants to advertise either. As the information she obtains leads her closer to the person who killed her ex, she finds herself obliged to moonlight as an arborist, a job she's really not cut out for. Can she find the murderer, or will it be too hard to separate the wood from the trees?