Four years have passed since the events that first introduced us to Superintendent Yngvar Stubo and ex-FBI profiling expert Inger Johanne Vik. Inger Johanne has just given birth to their first child together but is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, convinced her baby will die if left alone for even a second. But soon they are face more substantial threats. It begins with the morbid finding of a corpse: talk-show star Fiona Helle is found killed in her home, her tongue removed and left on her desk, cleaved in two. And when a second body, that of right-wing party leader Vibeke Heinerbeck, is found crucified to the bedroom wall with a copy of the Koran inserted into her body, Stubo is pulled from paternity leave to lead the investigation. IngerJohanne begins to see a pattern, but one that may end in the death of the investigating officer ...