1851, Manitoba’s Red River Valley. As winter sets in, a young woman on the edge of madness arrives exhausted at the fort, a wilderness station, claiming she murdered her husband. She’s placed in a cell; for the next several months, she sews while the local prefect, Henry Mullen, investigates.

To remedy his financial problems, a travel agent has his eye on a frozen corpse, which just happens to be sought after by two hitmen.

A census-taker (Sisto) is sent to investigate why a certain small town has had the same population — 436 residents — for the last 100 years.