On a stifling mid-summer day, eleven-year-old Claire Hofer sets out carrying lunch to her father, who is raking hay. As she nears the field, she hears no rumbling tractor and sees only Township Constable John McIntire. Claire's father, Reuben, is dead. Constable McIntire finds the crime baffling. Reuben Hofer has only lived in the old St. Adele schoolhouse since early May, and the family has had little contact with anyone in the community besides the Catholic priest and the local doctor. But Hofer was not exactly the newcomer that McIntire had believed. His past holds several secrets, including reasons why Hofer was a stranger to his children until he returned home to become their overlord. Could the bewildered and frightened Claire hold the key to this crime?