When France's top chef, Marc Fraysse, summoned the world's press to make a shattering announcement, rumors abounded that he was about to lose one of his three coveted Michelin stars. Instead, upon arriving at his remote restaurant on a volcanic plateau in central France, they were greeted with the news that the troubled genius had been murdered, and the message he intended to deliver was never made. Seven years later, his killing and the identity of his killer still remain an enigma.

Enzo Macleod takes on his fifth cold case and delves into the big business and high stakes of French haute cuisine. As winter sets in and snow gathers along a volcanic horizon, he retraces long-cold footsteps across a remote hilltop. But unraveling the complex web of relationships that surrounded the brilliant and mercurial chef—a spurned lover, a jealous wife, an estranged brother, an embittered food critic—also leads to strange parallels with his own life. In opening up this celebrated cold case, he finds himself reopening old wounds from his past.