A mysterious benefactor has left his 150 acre estate to the Sisters of St. Tabitha cloister. The abbess sent the two Sisters to take possession of the property that she felt were best equipped to cope with the outside world, Sister John and Sister Hyacinthe.
When the two Sisters arrive at the property, they find a large Victorian house and barn that seem abandoned. But this is a house of secrets, the first of which is the wounded man hiding upstairs.
He refuses to tell the two his name or how he came to be suffering from gunshot wounds but he asks for sanctuary before he collapses. The nuns decide to honor his request and set about patching him up and hiding him from nosey visitors, of which there is an unending stream. Some are obviously looking for the wounded man but others seem to be looking for something in the house, including the local sheriff. It isn't long before Sister John discovers a suitcase full of cash and Sister Hyacinthe 50 pounds of what she assumes is powdered sugar (it's not sugar).
It's pretty apparent that the mysterious benefactor was either a gangster or an associate of gangsters. And those gangsters want their drugs and their money and the wounded man disguised as a nun hidden upstairs. But the Sisters can't call in the police because the sheriff is obviously not to be trusted. Good thing a camp of friendly hippies and their guru are willing to step in to help when the cops can't be trusted.
This was a good story, even if a bit dated. Set in the early 1970s, with all the concerns of those days that haven't gotten any better in nearly 50 years, but the story is filled with an optimism that we could really use these days.
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