"When an intricate old map is found stuffed into the walls of the bistro in Three Pines, it at first seems no more than a curiosity. But the closer the villagers look, the stranger it becomes. Given to Armand Gamache as a gift the first day of his new job, the map eventually leads him to shattering secrets. To an old friend and older adversary. It leads the former Chief of Homicide for the Sûreté du Québec to places even he is afraid to go. But...

"When a mysterious figure appears in Three Pines one cold November day, Armand Gamache and the rest of the villagers are at first curious. Then wary. Through rain and sleet, the figure stands unmoving, staring ahead. From the moment its shadow falls over the village, Gamache, now Chief Superintendent of the S�uret�e du Qu�ebec, suspects the creature has deep roots and a dark purpose. Yet he does nothing. What can he do? Only watch and wait....

Baby, 13 and motherless, is young enough to drag her dolls around in a vinyl suitcase and old enough to know more than she should about life on the streets. She lives with her father Jules, who has a penchant for heroin. To survive, Baby spins stories, cracks herself up, and slips through life. Her beauty captures the attention of Alphonse, and his stable of young girls. Jules sends her to reform school, but Baby finds a way out and into the hands...

It's Gamache's first day back as head of the homicide department, a job he temporarily shares with his previous second-in-command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir. Flood waters are rising across the province. In the middle of the turmoil a father approaches Gamache, pleading for help in finding his daughter. As crisis piles upon crisis, Gamache tries to hold off the encroaching chaos, and realizes the search for Vivienne Godin should be abandoned. But with a daughter...