With Door County caught in the grip of a fierce winter storm, Sheriff Dave Cubiak agrees to a seemingly simple favor: checking in on an affluent widow with a questionable new suitor. His initial disquiet is easily dismissed--until she is found dead the next morning in her home. Lying at the bottom of a flight of stairs, clutching a valuable bronze sculpture, she points her outstretched hand in the direction of a nearby, nondescript ring.

The scene bears all the characteristics of an accidental fall, but something is not adding up. Later that week, an ice-fishing shack explodes on the frozen bay, leading to the discovery of another body, burned beyond recognition. Was this the widow's missing handyman? Could the two deaths be related? Past and present collide as Cubiak's search for answers uncovers disquieting links between wealth and poverty on the peninsula and stirs the melancholy depths of grief that have haunted the sheriff for years.