The Depression's winter gloom has crept into the summerhouse of the Hancock Shaker Village in Massachusetts. The dead body of a woman "of dubious reputation" -- a lost soul befriended by many of the brothers and sisters -- sits at a table in an evening gown, snow swirling around her frozen ankles, her lifeless arms stretched out before her. A frantic call goes out to Kentucky, begging Eldress Rose Callahan to brave the February cold and come East, where her keen eye and peerless deductive powers are needed to help lift a terrible weight from the bereft and dwindling community of Believers. But Sister Rose's arrival is greeted with local suspicion and spreading terror when murder once again scars the gentle village. And as the fury of winter further isolates the small village from its suspicious neighbors, Sister rose and her dear friend Gennie Malone must race to unmask a killer who may be mad enough to keep killing throughout this frigid season of dying.