Lars Gustafson has one job to do. The mortician hired him for his size---not his brain, and certainly not his English---and Lars carries the bodies. Young and old; big and small; drowned, pneumatic---and murdered.When wealthy farmer Harold Eklund is found shot---and frozen---on his dining table, the small, windswept town of Osceola, Nebraska is consumed by the mystery---and Lars more than anyone. Harold and his family fascinate Lars, and despite his usual reticence, he seeks ways to get closer to them---Especially Harold's daughters, Rachel and Mildred.Pulled further and further into the Eklund family's secrets, Lars begins to unwind the mystery of Harold's murder---and the strange part Lars himself played in the man's demise. Fifteen years of pain and lies, jealousy and scandal, have festered like a corpse. From covering a lurid crime in 1915, to ruthless land buyouts in the Twenties, to the devastating secret Rachel has hidden her entire marriage---Harold's choices have destroyed himself, his family, and even his murderer.Lars must now choose between burying a tragic truth, and shattering the fragile remains of Rachel and Mildred's family.