Death on Lake Ice begins with reclusive but brilliant engineer Jacob Adami deciding to change his life and move to Mountain Top County. He takes the position of county engineer. He moves himself and his three cats into a home overlooking Lake Ice. On his first inspection trip as county engineer to a local spillway, he discovers the murdered body of the area's leading citizen and largest landowner. Being new to the area, he meets the local people and learns of their lives. They, on the other hand, find him somewhat mysterious and cannot understand why a rich and powerful man would move to their mountains and take a low-paying engineering position. As Jacob gets to know the people and the circumstances of the murdered man, he slowly forms a theory of the crime.