It is the height of summer, and Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his wife are celebrating their anniversary at the luxurious, isolated Manoir Bellechasse. But the Finney family-- rich, cultured, and respectable--has also arrived for a celebration of their own. As some surprising guests turn up, and a terrible storm leaves behind a dead body, Gamache soon learns that the seemingly peaceful lodge is a place where visitors come to escape their past, until that past catches up with them