When the long winter night falls in Ennis, Alaska, the eight men who operate the Tsalal Arctic Research Station vanish without a trace. To solve the case, detectives Liz Danvers and Evangeline Navarro must confront their pasts and the dark truths lying underneath the Arctic ice.

Partner detectives investigate a macabre crime involving two missing children in the heart of the Ozarks, Arkansas. The story spans three decades.

When California Highway Patrol officer and war veteran Paul Woodrugh discovers a crime scene, it attracts Vinci Police Department detective Ray Velcoro and Ventura County Sheriff's Office CID Ani Bezzerides to the investigation. Also involved is Frank Semyon, a career criminal and entrepreneur, who is married to Jordan.

In 2012, two homicide investigators of the Louisiana State Police's Criminal Investigations Division - Rustin "Rust" Cohle and Martin "Marty" Hart - are summoned for questioning by detectives Maynard Gilbough and Thomas Papania over the Dora Lange murder investigation of 1995; they have not seen nor spoken to each other since an altercation concerning Martin's wife Maggie Hart over a decade prior. With many of the old files destroyed in Hurricane Rita, the two men are asked to recount the history of their working relationship, personal lives, and the Dora Lange murder investigation, as well as a series of other related individual cases as new evidence suggests that the perpetrator remains at large.