The day after Easter, Armand Gamache is enjoying the Montreal spring weather with his son Daniel’s family, who are due to leave for Paris the next day. Gamache takes the opportunity to privately give Daniel an envelope, but an unknown observer sees the exchange. Later, he and his paramour, Reine-Marie, are reading the newspaper, and she draws his attention to an article about a woman who was frightened to death at the Hadley house in Three Pines. Gamache is shocked.

Gamache has been called into Sûreté du Québec headquarters by Superintendent Michel Brébeuf, his oldest friend. Brébeuf asks him, as head of homicide, to look into the death in Three Pines. Gamache is surprised, as the newspaper indicates that the death was caused by a heart attack. Brébeuf shows him the toxicology report, which indicates ephedra, a banned substance. Brébeuf wants Gamache to determine whether it was murder, which means that he will have to go to Three Pines and face the Hadley house again.

Brébeuf also asks if Agent Yvette Nichol, a difficult officer suspected to be sympathetic to Gamache’s enemy, Agent Arnot, will be on Gamache’s investigative team.