Gamache earns the displeasure of General Director Francoeur when he ignores his superior’s orders and begins investigating the disappearance of Blue Two-Rivers. As a punishment, he’s dispatched to the remote village of Three Pines to investigate the murder of a wealthy socialite named CC de Poitiers, where he soon discovers everything is not as it seems and he has no shortage of suspects.

Gamache realises that the key to solving CC’s murder lies in her enigmatic past. Discovering that one of the villagers has withheld from him a key piece of information, he is able to crack the case. Meanwhile, Gamache’s delight at making a breakthrough in Blue’s disappearance is short-lived as the Two-Rivers family rejects his evidence and the anguished Missy is driven into a desperate act.