When Armand Gamache receives a letter inviting him to an abandoned farmhouse outside of Three Pines, the former head of the Surete du Quebec discovers that a complete stranger has named him as an executor of her will. Armand never knew the elderly woman, and the bequests are so wildly unlikely that he suspects the woman must have been delusional - until a body is found, and the terms of the bizarre will suddenly seem far more menacing. But it isn't...