In the frosty Melbourne winter, milliner sleuth Catherine Kint looks for distraction in a night at the circus. When tragedy strikes, she and her barman Boris are drawn into a new mystery. As they draw back the metaphorical curtain, they're confronted with a troupe in chaos, a culture of secrecy, and a family in crisis. Add in hula hooping thugs, a desperate suspect, and a nihilistic bully and you have a recipe for carnage even Catherine can't control. Oh, and then there's Boris' love life - send in the clowns...