Ari Thór Arason is a local policeman whose tumultuous past and uneasy relationships with the villagers in an idyllically quiet fishing village in Northern Iceland―where no one locks their doors―continue to haunt him.

The peace of this close-knit community is shattered by the murder of a policeman―shot at point-blank range in the dead of night in a deserted house. With a killer on the loose and the dark Arctic winter closing in, it falls to Ari Thór to piece together a puzzle that involves tangled local politics, a compromised new mayor, and a psychiatric ward in Reykjavík where someone is being held against their will. Then a mysterious young woman moves to the area, on the run from something she dares not reveal, and it becomes all too clear that tragic events from the past are weaving a sinister spell that may threaten them all.