All things considered, Claire hasn't been having a good time, generally, and things were beginning to look as threatening as the winter clouds. Then Stephanie is found beaten again and it's all too clear that Buck wasn't responsible for the abuse; did that mean that whoever was is the murderer? Would she be able to get Stephanie to trust her and tell her what she needed to know before there was another corpse?
Then a bad storm blows in on the winter solstice bringing four feet of snow, howling winds, no power, closed roads, and a message that gives Claire all she needs to know-except how to get to the killer and stop him.