A young woman is brutally murdered on an island near Stockholm, a haunt of wealthy retirees and arty weekenders. Suspicion falls first on a family of Iraqi refugees, initially welcomed into the community but gradually feared and shunned. But then, as the victim's story begins to unfold, suspicion begins inexorably to fall elsewhere. Lena Sundman was rude, dysfunctional, and very young. Everything a fastidious man like Dan Byrne disliked. Hiding out on the island after the sudden death of his wife, Dan finds himself strangely drawn to the troubled girl, starting from the moment he reluctantly rescues her in the teeth of a gathering snowstorm.