When a vicious alcoholic dies in a suspicious house fire, Rev. Olympia Brown and Father Jim Sawicki stretch the boundaries of their religious vows to prove his death is accidental and not murder. But evidence to the contrary is mounting and the curious clerical twosome have little time to learn the truth and prevent the daughter that the man abused for years from ending her own life.

Olympia and Jim confront unspeakable realities of incest, domestic violence and dark family secrets set against a tapestry of misconstrued Catholic dogma and the Irish culture of silence as the two colleagues struggle to untangle a hideous web of shame, guilt, and broken lives.    

And through all of this, Olympia continues with the restoration of her antique home in Southeastern Massachusetts. Miss Winslow, Olympia’s nosy and outspoken house-ghost, begins to reveal more of her own story. Olympia’s search for her lost daughter takes a curious turn. Frederick Watkins, Olympia’s gentleman friend from England is planning a purposeful return visit. And Father Jim Sawicki, Olympia’s partner in amateur sleuthing and best friend forever, struggles with issues from his own tragic past.