Detective Patrik Hedstrom is no stranger to tragedy. A murder case concerning Fjällbacka's dead financial director, Mats Sverin, is a grim but useful distraction from his recent family misfortune. It seems Sverin was a man who everybody liked yet nobody really knew--a man with something to hide...

On a late summer's night, a young woman jumps in her car, her hands slippery with blood on the steering wheel. Taking her five-year-old son, Nathalie flees to the only safe haven she knows: the island of Graskar off the coast of Fjallbacka. Meanwhile, Detective Patrik Hedstrom has barely stepped foot inside his office following a lengthy sick leave before he catches a murder investigation. A man has been murdered in his home: the victim, Mats Sverin, was the council's financial director, heading up a regeneration project worth millions.