The bright, snow-covered Christmas season brings a host of uninvited guests to the village of Three Christmases in Canada, including a grim reaper and a variety of forensic scientists. When it turns out that there isn't a single person in the entire community who doesn't hate a lady who recently moved into the village's haunted house, Armand Gamache must determine who among the village's haters is the real murderer...or murderers. There are soon several murders, and their investigation reveals complex connections between the characters' past and present, imagination and reality, art and esotericism.