The Gamache’s anniversary celebrations at the exclusive Manoir Belleforet hotel are cut short by the discovery of a body. Gamache pulls in his team and together they investigate the case, which focuses on the hotel’s owners – the dysfunctional Morrow family – who are driven by bitterness and jealousy. Meanwhile, Lacoste receives a surprise call which blows the Blue Two-Rivers case wide open.

Gamache and his team unearth a tragic story that provides the key to the victim’s desire for vengeance, and by doing so leads the team to his murderers. Meanwhile, it falls to Gamache to apprehend the individual responsible for Blue Two-Rivers’ disappearance, putting himself in grave danger as he does so.