The only worthwhile lead Detective Inspector Irene Huss has to go on is a striking tattoo on the torso. Her investigations lead her to Copenhagen, where she is plunged into a manhunt for a depraved and vicious killer. A killer she knows will soon strike again, and who is becoming far too interested in her family...

Two boy scouts find a woman's body buried in a desolate field. Irene Huss and her team begin to investigate the case. As the investigation continues they discover more graves, each with a woman's body was buried along with what appears to be a personal item. It is now clear that a horrific serial killer is raging in the area. The police are very confused and can not find the link between the victims except that they are middle-aged women. While Irene begins to feel persecuted ...

Once DI Irene Huss arrives on the scene, it soon turns out that what appeared to be a tragic suicide is actually a brutal murder, and the victim is one of Gothenburg’s wealthiest men. When it becomes clear that a biker gang is involved, the investigation gets even more complicated and Irene finds herself tracking down a shrewd and dangerous murderer among ex-millionaires, motorcycle gangs, drug-dealers and blackmailers. Suddenly, the lives of Irene, her family and her colleagues are in danger. At the same time, she has to deal with everyday life and a teenage daughter who has decided to join a gang of skinheads with neo-Nazi tendencies.

Gothenburg is struck by a series of fires. Irene Huss starts investigating an arson case that may be connected to an event that occurred fifteen years ago, a tragic unsolved case that challenged Irene when she first came to the Violent Crimes Unit. The population is unnerved by the thought of an arsonist on the loose, and the pressure on Irene and the rest of her team is immense. In the midst of everything else, a woman has been stabbed to death. The victim, a reclusive old lady, seems to have little in common with the fires that ravage the mainland.

A young man is found dead, dumped in a container. The body is naked, bloody and battered. An autopsy shows the victim was GHB in the body and have suffered whiplash, cuts and burns. Everything indicates that he has been kidnapped and sexually abused and tortured. There seems to be an organized gang has done this before, this is just the first time the victim has died. The tracks leading to a nightclub that Irene's daughter Jenny and her friend's visit, unaware of the danger. Irene Huss and her colleagues have a problem with the investigation when those who become victims do not report crimes because of shame, and for fear that someone will find out what happened.

In a small village near Gothenburg, three members of the Schyttelius family are brutally murdered in their respective homes, and the victims’ blood is used to draw upside-down pentagrams on the walls. The investigators soon learn that the upside-down pentagrams symbolize the face of Satan. Irene Huss finds out that Sten Shyttelius, a minister, and his family, have been trying to investigate a local Satanist movement in their parish.