With her hopes for a secure life in ruins, Lizzie Saunders finds herself on the run with an unexpected traveling companion: the thief, Jack Hunter. But the winter of 1898 is a difficult time to travel. After fleeing Victoria, the two fugitives soon find themselves stranded by snow, trapped with strangers in a remote sanitarium, and the law closing in. Lizzie discovers that nothing at St. Alice Hotel is what it seems. Every guest harbours secrets, and when she befriends a dying patient, Lizzie begins to suspect that his malady is not of natural causes, but a most curious and wicked attempt at murder. Equal parts mystery, adventure, and Canadian history, 'The Agony of St. Alice' follows Lizzie as her journey takes her deep into the snow-bound wilderness, where monsters prowl and hunger reigns, and the winter turns weak men cruel.