In January 2021, Detective Ralph Anderson receives a flash drive labeled “If It Bleeds” (163) from Holly Gibney. Ralph doesn’t see the drive’s contents until he returns home from family vacation. The drive contains files pertaining to a recent case Holly investigated, as well as an audio diary dated mid-December 2020. The diary ends with Holly worrying that her life is in danger.

A delivery truck arrives at Albert Macready Middle School in Pineborough, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Keller, the school secretary, receives a package for the Nemo Me Impune Lacessit Society, a student club that regularly interacts with a partner school in Scotland. Mrs. Keller assumes that the package is a Christmas gift. She leaves it in the storage closet for the club moderator to retrieve later. That afternoon, a bomb inside the package explodes, killing several school members and injuring others.

Holly Gibney is a private investigator at the Finders Keepers agency. During her downtime, Holly settles down to watch her favorite television show, a reality court show called John Law. Holly’s agency partner, Pete Huntley, returns to the office from a search for a runaway girl. Pete has no taste for John Law, though he applauds Holly for fixing the building elevator with the help of their junior partner, Jerome Robinson.