Alexander Blix is a broken man. Convicted for avenging his daughter's death, he is being held in one of Norway's high-security prisons. Inside, the other prisoners take every opportunity to humiliate the former police investigator. Outside, Blix's former colleagues are hunting for a terrifying killer. Walter Kroos has escaped from prison in Germany and is heading north. The only lead established by the police is that Kroos has a friend in Blix's prison ward. And now they need Blix's help. Journalist Emma Ramm, one of Blix's few visitors, becomes his ally as he struggles to connect the link between past and present, between the world inside and outside the prison walls. As he begins to piece things together, he identifies a woodland community in Norway where deeply scarred inhabitants foster deadly secrets . . . secrets that may be the unravelling of everyone involved.