The only worthwhile lead Detective Inspector Irene Huss has to go on is a striking tattoo on the torso. Her investigations lead her to Copenhagen, where she is plunged into a manhunt for a depraved and vicious killer. A killer she knows will soon strike again, and who is becoming far too interested in her family...

Once DI Irene Huss arrives on the scene, it soon turns out that what appeared to be a tragic suicide is actually a brutal murder, and the victim is one of Gothenburg’s wealthiest men. When it becomes clear that a biker gang is involved, the investigation gets even more complicated and Irene finds herself tracking down a shrewd and dangerous murderer among ex-millionaires, motorcycle gangs, drug-dealers and blackmailers. Suddenly, the lives of Irene, her family and her colleagues are in danger. At the same time, she has to deal with everyday life and a teenage daughter who has decided to join a gang of skinheads with neo-Nazi tendencies.

A blackout leaves the distinguished halls of the Löwanderska Hospital in complete darkness. Doctor Sverker Löwander hears the alarm when one of the ventilators go off, and rushes to the intensive care unit only to find the nurse in charge dead in the stairwell and the other disappeared without a trace. When DI Irene Huss arrives, the only witness claims to have seen Nurse Tekla doing her rounds. There’s only one slight problem: Nurse Tekla committed suicide at the hospital sixty years ago… Irene is challenged by an intriguing case and dramatic relations, all spiced up with wandering ghosts from the past.

In a small village near Gothenburg, three members of the Schyttelius family are brutally murdered in their respective homes, and the victims’ blood is used to draw upside-down pentagrams on the walls. The investigators soon learn that the upside-down pentagrams symbolize the face of Satan. Irene Huss finds out that Sten Shyttelius, a minister, and his family, have been trying to investigate a local Satanist movement in their parish.

Gothenburg is struck by a series of fires. Irene Huss starts investigating an arson case that may be connected to an event that occurred fifteen years ago, a tragic unsolved case that challenged Irene when she first came to the Violent Crimes Unit. The population is unnerved by the thought of an arsonist on the loose, and the pressure on Irene and the rest of her team is immense. In the midst of everything else, a woman has been stabbed to death. The victim, a reclusive old lady, seems to have little in common with the fires that ravage the mainland.