It’s getting closer to Christmas and snow is falling over Stockholm when detectives Nick Johansson and Klara Pil are called to a macabre murder scene. The victim is a woman and someone has gouged out her eyes and placed a crown of thorns on her head. In parallel with the increasingly intense hunt for the mutilated woman’s murderer, the search continues for Torsten Lilja, the former chief prosecutor who, after being exposed as a pedophile, had plastic surgery beyond recognition and fled abroad. On a private level, things are chaotic for both Nick and Klara, but when the murder investigation enters a new phase, they are forced to put everything else aside and concentrate on arresting the murderer.