Peace on earth and mercy mild. . . But there's no mercy here. There is no telling how long the body has been down in the cellar, rising as the water level rises. . .
In a wintry seaside resort an old woman goes missing from her residential hotel for the elderly, the inappropriately named Happy Haven. And in a remote farmhouse not far away, the Moon family gathers for Christmas. Clover Moon, the farmer's wife, looks forward to the forthcoming festivities with quite desperation and dread.
What terrible secrets from the past are coming back to haunt them? As gales and blizzards cut off the power and maroon the Christmas gathering, where did the body come from which is swept into the farmhouse cellar by the rising flood water?
In Gillian White's dark and disturbing world, where nothing is quite as it seems, a mystery from the past becomes a terrifying ordeal in the present, and a traditional family Christmas turns into nightmare.
