Professor Alice Clarke's carefully constructed life - safe, predictable, and lonely - is upended when she finds her colleague's body just before an important meeting. Despite her willingness to help Detective Tracey Boucher solve the crime, Alice is worried she herself is the main suspect. Her long-ago vow to avoid frightening situations is tested to its limits as she resolves to establish her innocence by finding the killer herself.

Suspicious of several suddenly overly friendly colleagues, skeptical of a student's motives, and shocked by the actions of the dead man's wife, Alice is pushed toward danger. But is she any closer to finding the murderer?