Bernie Rhonderbarr is a bookseller and owner of Barnegat Books. He's also a burglar. Bernie and best buddy, Carolyn Kaiser, leave the hustle and bustle of Manhattan behind for a little peace and quiet at Cuttleford House, a remote English Country House in the Berkshires. Bernie had originally planned this romantic getaway with Lettice Runcible, his lady love. But that was before Lettice dropped the bomb and told him she was getting married - and not to him!

Bernie has a hidden agenda for keeping his reservation at the Cuddleford House. There's a book in their library called The Big Sleep. It's signed by the author, Raymond Chandler, and inscribed to Dashiell Hammett. It's just sitting there waiting to be found and it's worth $25,000 dollars.

The first morning at Cuttleford House Bernie is awakened by a piercing scream. Jonathan Rathburn, another guest, is found murdered on the library floor. A few hours later Orris Cobbett, the groundskeeper, falls to his death. Seems someone severed the ropes on the drawbridge so when Orris stepped onto it it collasped. There are bodies piling up all over the place and no one knows who will be next.

With two feet of snow on ground (and still falling), severed phone lines and corpses piling up faster than the snow it's up to Bernie, amateur sleuth, to figure out who the murderer is.