In this third a la Russe novel, Natalya Denisova chooses tea as her poisoning method and she decides there will be three victims. Shortly after this decision, three new students arrive at her belly dance studio and try to usurp her position as star performer. After her son Leo brings her a box of Calming Tea from a trip to Chinatown, Natalya introduces the tea to her belly dance class, including the three troublesome women. The students find this tea helps them to focus on their dancing and they continue to drink it. But Leo, who surreptitiously rewrites his mother's books, knows there is always a connection between her literary poisoning method and her real-life enemies. As there are three errant belly dance students and three literary victims, he suspects the combination of Natalya's Evil Eye and the Calming Tea will be the disliked dancers' undoing.