Francis McNally, a semi-retired private investigator, returns to Baker Lake, a hamlet in Arctic Canada, to honor the passing of a friend he had met on an earlier assignment, the elderly and quirky Auguste Demarais. For McNally, Demarais was more than a friend. During McNally's previous visit, there had been a life-threatening encounter with some armed men; Demarais, whom many considered a mystic, worked his magic to prevent further harm. For McNally, an inconvenient trip in the middle of winter is the least he can do.
He convinces his wife Linnie to accompany him part way-she will remain in Toronto with a friend while he continues north, tends to Demarais's remembrance, and rejoins her for a short vacation. When he arrives in Baker Lake, however, he finds the often sleepy town altered dramatically. There has been a yet-unsolved murder, a popular school teacher has disappeared, and an aggressive and intolerant nationalism has sprung up in a predominantly Inuit community.
The murder victim, a young lady from Iqaluit named Karima, had been found a mile from town and draped in a flag representing a bygone Canada. The schoolteacher, Deidre Laird, was an ardent apologist of all things Inuit and often used her classroom to educate the students about the atrocities heaped on First Nation people. It was a tactic that resulted in a fair amount of blowback. And several times of late, there had been meetings, rallies, and speaking events that glorified the old Canada and roiled the community.
McNally aims to stay clear of it all, but he feels he must pay at least lip service to the search for Deidre Laird, the young lady who had helped out one of McNally's friends years before. But it doesn't take McNally long to find the thread that runs through all three occurrences. Under ordinary circumstances, he would sign on and get to work, but his wife is waiting for him in Toronto. She is okay with giving him an extra day or two, but the situation-and every situation-will soon be complicated by some new virus that, according to many, will kill millions and shut down the world.
McNally is not accustomed to working under time constraints. He often refers to himself as more of a sit-and-observe guy, waiting for the unfaithful spouse or overconfident embezzler to slip up. Now he has only a few days to pick up a trail that begins in Baker Lake and ends a thousand miles to the south. And the PI, who has always worked alone, reluctantly partners with (or is partnered by) two young people from Baker. As talk of the pandemic moves from theoretical to urgent, McNally must change his MO completely, and the self-reliant PI must rely on others and, more important, trust them.
