Detective Chief Inspector Erik Winter returns in a hard-boiled murder mystery about the dark and dirty underside of upstanding family life.

There's a heatwave in Gothenburg. But while carefree school-leavers celebrate in the sunshine, tragedy waits to pierce the heady days of summer.

It is late when nineteen-year-old Jeanette bids goodbye to her friends and sets off for home. She takes a shortcut through a city park - a decision which will add hours to her journey... Next morning the police come to question Jeanette about the rape, but in her desparation she has already scoured all traces of the crime away.

Chief Inspector Erik Winter and his colleagues are reminded of a rape and murder case which remains unsolved after five years. Could this be the work of the same person? As more girls fall victim, each of them strangled, Winter grows increasingly certain that each crime holds the key to the others.

Scratching around for clues, the police find themselves drawn into the underground clubland of Gothenburg. A concrete connection between the murders still eludes them, but their list of suspects is growing: the spurned ex, the surly father, the naive school friends, the uncooperative victim; someone knows much more than they are letting on. Whose dark secret is threatening the young women of Gothenburg?