Christmas guest: Grandmama arrives on a holiday visit to the home of Charlotte's parents, where a fellow guest--an outcast from her own family--is subsequently murdered.

Christmas secret: Dominic Corde is thrilled to fill the robe as substitute vicar in the village of Cottisham, while the Reverend Wynter is away on a three-week Christmas holiday. However, it turns out that the Reverend Wynter isn't on holiday at all-and that something very sinister has transpired. As a blizzard leaves Cottisham treacherously snowbound and the isolated village swirls with unsavory secrets, Dominic and Clarice suddenly find themselves in deadly danger.