When Ellie Warren’s café employee, Shirl Lee, enters some pickles into the Crooked Creek, Indiana, Pickle Festival, neither one knows the brine is poisoned. A pickle judge, Brody Jones, keels over dead right in front of Shirl, most of the town, as well as local detectives. It looks pretty bad for Shirl, who has a negative history with the victim, but Ellie knows Shirl would never hurt anyone. The girl’s love for every living thing is apparent every day when she works her shifts at the Kitty Beret Café. And the café kitties love her right back. Ellie and her cat, Templeton, paw through sour, briny clues to help Shirl out of her current pickle.