"Relax. Listen to your sound of your breathing and the sound of my voice. Close your eyes and open your heart. Banish all thoughts from your head and take steady breath. Now allow yourself to fall into a warm, soothing trance." Nicol Fulmar was a gentle, enchantress in her forties would occasionally use her calming voice and hypnotism to relieve fears and anxieties by entrancing her family of friends in the lakeside community. Her home felt alive with love on a magical slope on Lake Memphremagog until it died with her mysterious murder.

Inspector Duforêt and lieutenant Leblanc, two middle aged detectives from the Sûreté de police in Magog, follow clues from the Quebec Eastern Townships to New Zealand, under the inquisitive eyes of Nicol's loving crow, Mowat, in order solve the hateful crime.