Enter the world of Three Pines . . . a Québec village only ever found by those who are lost, and now one of those lost has gone missing.

Despite crises that are overwhelming his homicide department, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache travels to the tiny village as a personal favor. There he discovers that the missing woman was once one of the most famous people in the world. She'd thought she'd finally found a refuge. But she was wrong. Her past had followed her there. Had found her there. And with growing dread, Gamache realizes something horrific has followed him. Has found him. With enemies closing in, and an unlikely group of allies to count on, Gamache rushes to solve a murder and stop a political plot decades in the making.

But the village has been found. Time has run out. And what was once a sanctuary becomes a prison.