Sugawara Akitada has been appointed as the governor of a remote northern province in feudal Japan. Aided only by a handful of retainers, he is beset by his own doubts and hostile locals. Winter is closing in and he must exert his fragile authority to rein in a mutinous baron, while also in­ves­ti­gat­ing some mysterious deaths and righting old wrongs.

Parker evokes the spare, stark beauty of Japan, in a well-written historical mystery.