While coping with their death, she is trying to work on a biography of Selma Lagerlöf, a Swedish author and the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Patrik Hedström, a detective, is assigned to investigate a case in which the victim, Erica's childhood friend Alex, is found frozen in a bathtub, her wrists cut in an apparent suicide.

[4][5] Publishers Weekly review reflects that in her first novel, "Läckberg skillfully details how horrific secrets are never completely buried and how silence can kill the soul.

"[6] Kirkus Reviews notes that the novel turns up "the sordidness of the wealthy, the appalling effects of child abuse and the general mayhem that ensues whenever cabin fever sets in.

The importance of the location is emphasized by the inclusion of a map of Fjällbacka, and the depictions of the landscape are both colorful and integral to the plot.