Semi-retired PI Francis McNally learns of the death of a friend in Nunavut and devises a plan: he and his wife will fly to Toronto—she'll stay a few days and take in the city while he continues north, fulfils his responsibility, then returns to vacation with her before they both head back to the States, But he finds that his destination, a small town in Nunavut, is on edge. An unsolved murder, a missing woman, and some ominous echoes of the now-disgraced residential schools are dividing the citizens. Then there's talk of some new virus from China. McNally can offer little more than moral support; he needs to get to Toronto. Still, he agrees to spend a day "looking around," unaware that the virus has already begun to change things. The simple act of getting from place to place will soon become impossible, and his involvement will deepen as he treks southward across Quebec to a climactic confrontation that will decide his future and his wife's.