With only five days until Christmas 1942, Shepards Department Store Vice President James Burkhart hires Private Investigator Nicholas Chambers to look into the murky past of his future son-in-law. The mystery deepens when an eccentric art collector recruits Chambers to purchase a rare Austrian clock at auction. A beautiful French woman and a mysterious group operating on the outskirts of Providence draw Chambers deeper into the mystery, and open his eyes to an imminent threat facing his way of life.