Newlyweds Jimmy Urquhart and Sandy (Notepad) MacDonald head to New York for a Manhattan honeymoon. The new Mrs. Urquhart knows the city very well, perhaps too well. Her surprising friendships with some notable people re-awakens some of Jimmy’s concern about her past, but Notepad makes it clear she will not talk about it.

They return to Barrachois for the final week of their honeymoon, invited to attend the trial opening of Clyburn Castle, Dr. Grandage’s new hotel twenty miles up the coast from Barrachois. The event is for investors, both committed and interested. The hotel is a marvel—the perfect end to a honeymoon, until a freak spring blizzard blocks the roads and cuts the power and phones.

And then the deaths begin.