In the small Minnesota town of Deephaven, an entire family has been killed--husband, wife, two daughters, dogs. There's something about the scene that pokes at Lucas Davenport's cop instincts--it looks an awful lot like the kind of scorched-earth retribution he's seen in drug killings. But it just doesn't seem to fit, until it does. And where it leads Lucas will take him into the darkest nightmare of his life.

Assisting the proprietor of the Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon, Mma Ramotswe begins to suspect that a saboteur is behind a string of unfortunate mishaps; while Mma Makutsi prepares for the birth of her child in spite of difficult family controversies.

In 1941, when the Mitford family gathers at Chatsworth for Christmas, along with society’s most glamourous guests and Louisa Cannon, an old family friend turned private detective, a mystery unfolds after a psychic reveals a long-ago murder in this very house, prompting Louisa to solve this cold case.