Late on December 27, elderly shop owner Kuldesh Sharma drives out to meet someone about a mysterious box that recently came into his possession. He wonders if he might be killed but assumes he has bought himself time by not bringing the box with him. He is mistaken, however, as he is shot almost immediately upon arrival, without warning.

Around lunchtime on Wednesday, December 26, the four members of the Thursday Murder Club—Elizabeth Best, Ron Richie, Joyce Meadowcroft, and Ibrahim Arif—meet to celebrate Christmas. Mervyn, a Coopers Chase resident whom Joyce finds attractive, accompanies them. Unfortunately for her, Mervyn has a sweetheart in Lithuania. The gang becomes suspicious when they hear he has been sending her money.

Elsewhere that same day, a man named Mitch Maxwell is overseeing the arrival of a drug shipment. A package of heroin was hidden in an old box among some potted plants and smuggled into the country. Shipments like these often run through antiques shops; this particular box will be sent to Kuldesh’s shop in the morning because it is the only one that will be open in the area. A man named Dominic “Dom” Holt oversees things for Mitch on the South Coast, but unbeknownst to Mitch and Dom, a motorcycle courier is watching Dom’s warehouse.