Lars Gustafson has one job to do. The mortician hired him for his size—-not his brain, and certainly not his English—-and Lars carries the bodies. Young and old; big and small; drowned, pneumatic—-and murdered. When wealthy farmer Harold Eklund is found shot—-and frozen—-on his dining table, the small, windswept town of Osceola, Nebraska is consumed by the mystery—-and Lars more than anyone. Harold and his family fascinate Lars, and despite his usual reticence, he seeks ways to get closer to them—- Especially Harold's daughters, Rachel and Mildred. Pulled further and further into the Eklund family's secrets, Lars begins to unwind the mystery of Harold's murder—-and the strange part Lars himself played in the man's demise. Fifteen years of pain and lies, jealousy and scandal, have festered like a corpse. From covering a lurid crime in 1915, to ruthless land buyouts in the Twenties, to the devastating secret Rachel has hidden her entire marriage—-Harold's choices have destroyed himself, his family, and even his murderer. Lars must now choose between burying a tragic truth, and shattering the fragile remains of Rachel and Mildred's family.