Rory and her magical family are deep in preparing for the holiday celebrations, but the local Grim Reaper throws a spanner-or scythe-in the works when the town of Ivory Beach is chosen to host the Reapers' annual summit. Not only is the town swarming with angels of death instead of Santa's elves, but the situation gets even less cheery when a Reaper apprentice is found to have been murdered.

Now Rory and Xavier must unmask a killer among a group of people who reap the souls of the dead for a living - not to mention capture someone without a physical body to put behind bars. As the threat of the Reaper Council hangs over the town like a scythe, they have no choice but to race against the clock to unveil the culprit before the year's end.

And if the head Reapers do show up in town, will their relationship survive the fallout?