Cleary, North Carolina, is a sleepy mountain town-the kind of place where criminal activity is usually limited to parking violations. Not so lately. Chief Dutch Burton and his small police force have been frantically searching for a killer dubbed Blue, so called for his habit of leaving a blue ribbon near the spot where each of four young women was last seen. There are no bodies, no other clues, and no suspects. And, now another young woman has disappeared without a trace. Lilly Martin, Dutch's ex-wife, has returned to Cleary to close the sale of their mountain cabin, marking the end of their turbulent eight-year marriage-but Dutch's reluctance to let her go isn't her only obstacle to leaving. As she's trying to outrun the snow storm, her car skids on the icy road and strikes a man who emerges from the woods on foot. Lilly recognizes the injured man as Ben Tierney, whom she met the summer before. They've no choice but to wait out the storm in the cabin, but as the hours of their confinement mount, Lilly begins to wonder if the greatest danger to her safety isn't the blizzard outside, but the mysterious man right beside her. Driven by jealousy and his own demons, Dutch is determined to rescue Lilly and win her back for good. But will he reach her before Blue strikes again?