Officer Louis Kincaid is looking for a refuge. Drawn to the stark serenity of the Michigan wilderness, he thinks he's found just the place in Loon Lake, gateway to the Winter Wonderland. But behind the facade of pines and gingerbread lurks a killer taking his vengeance. His first victim is a local policeman, shot dead in the middle of the night, a playing card left by his body. Next, facedown and frozen under the ice near the shoreline, another policeman is found dead, another card at his side. Suspicions are rife, the atmosphere increasingly claustrophobic as Kincaid leads the local police force in a desperate bid to protect their own. Scared for his life, frustrated at every turn, Kincaid seems to be a pawn in another man's plan. But in the hands of a master, the endgame can have any number of outcomes.