Every Christmas, the elderly Adrian Gray invites his children to his lonely house at King's Poplars. This quarrelsome pack of six siblings is a swirling maelstrom of unhappy marriages, thwarted dreams, and desperate covetousness. And none of them is fond of their father; indeed, some even wish him dead. By Christmas Day, that wish has been granted - Gray lies cold in his library, struck down by one of his offspring. Police Sergeant Ross Murray, carrying a family secret of his own, must untangle the snarl of squabbles and resentments to trace the thread of the truth and find Gray's killer.