As winter deepens over the Blue Ridge Mountains, even the threat of snowstorms cannot derail this year's Christmas run, not as long as "Sister" Jane Arnold has a say in it. But in this 11th outing (after Crazy Like a Fox), a blizzard brings an early end to the sport, and a horse soon returns without its rider. The missing hunter turns out to be Gregory Luckham, the president of an energy company pushing for a pipeline through central Virginia. A search is organized, and what they discover chills everyone to the bone—and points toward murder. Over the holidays, Sister Jane will have to untangle a mystery full of secrets, old wounds, and avarice.