Loretta Groombridge thinks she's made a friend when Tikki Foy arrives in Venice to be a house guest at her employer's house. Professor Bryn Awbrey is renowned for his brilliance in solving cultural or literary puzzles ... and for his cluttered home office, which Loretta is paid to catalogue and organize.

But the newly-arrived guest distracts the professor and pulls him away. Something she's found hints of lost papers by Franz Kafka, famous Czech short-story writer of the 1920s. The possibility is tantalizing, but Loretta suspects a more sinister side to Tikki's story.

Tikki's weird behaviour and the danger and complication she attracts seem exaggerated and unwarranted. Who is pushing her to this; her library colleague, or a weird character who doggedly follows them? A chase takes places, tugging the women to Perth on a dizzy pursuit.

Loneliness, suspicion, and fear of losing her place in Bryn Awbrey's life whirl Loretta into a spiral of distrust and disappointment. Tikki pitches against her. Venice becomes a haunting, suspicious place.

What is found in the end confounds even the professor's logic.

The Frozen Sea is a literary adventure, a chase for treasure and truth, and an exploration of what it means to be lonely. Historical vignettes bring Kafka and his 1920s contemporaries to life, and weave together history and present-day dilemmas.