New Year’s celebrations of 1923. Daisy Delrimple arrives at the old Ventwater Court estate to write an article about it for a society magazine. An elegant circle gathers there: Count Ventwater, his second wife—the young beauty Annabelle, his children from the first marriage, and their closest friends. However, the holiday ends in tragedy: in the ice hole, they find the body of one of the guests—Stephen Astwick, a notorious ladies’ man and waster of life—who had been showing Annabelle persistent signs of attention.
A tragic accident? Or a carefully planned murder? Daisy and her new friend, Scotland Yard’s senior inspector Alec Fletcher, who just happens to be nearby, begin an investigation.