In Germantown, Ohio, Alyce Seff's body is found in a wishing well, and the townspeople are shocked to learn the elderly landlady had as many enemies as she did friends; it will take police nine years to solve her case.

Christmas is ruined when hikers in New Mexico stumble across Roxanne Houston's shallow grave; the murder rocks the community of Taos and tension builds between those with small town values and the outsider lifestyle on the Mesa.