On a remote island in Quebec a monastery stands. The monks there are one of the last surviving groups to sing & keep alive original Gregorian chants handed down to them from generations before. But now the outside world has affected their peaceful self-sufficient existence. A body is found in the abbots garden. One of the monks has been killed & presumably by someone within the monastery. So Chief Inspector Gamache & Inspector Beauvoir come to the island to investigate & question. They have no choice but to stay in the lonely silent monastery until the murderer is brought to light
- which soon brings to the surface their own inner turmoil...