It is Christmas morning and Maggie Mercer finds something under a tree. This tree is no Norwegian spruce sheltering shiny parcels. Instead, beneath a towering pine, she discovers a man’s body roped to a fence post.

Detective Inspector Elizabeth Jewell leaves a family get together in Oxford to attend the scene at the Wilderness Bird Sanctuary. The victim is Harry Steele, a local stonemason.

As the investigation progresses, Jewell and Patterson uncover Steele’s unsavoury past and those people affected by his arrogance and greed. Behind the sanctuary's tranquil setting a sense of foreboding emerges.
One clear fact emerges. Steele had more than his fair share of enemies. However, which one of them wanted him dead?

Still recovering from a previous case Jewell and Patterson must unravel their suspect’s lies and their complex motives.