"In this forest," her grandfather told her, "there roamed a draugr, a dead man who had returned to life." The word echoed menacingly in her head. Draugr.

A little outside Örebro, the body of an unknown person is discovered. Whoever the perpetrator was, they made sure to create a macabre scene and erase any evidence that would allow the identification of the victim.

Inspector Anders Economides will hear in horror as Jussi Alexandersson, the head of Forensics, tells him: "I have never seen such disrespect for the dead. Whoever did this has the devil inside them. And, although I am not superstitious, Anders, since last night I have had the feeling that this evil has stuck to us and follows us everywhere."

A shadow will begin to haunt the inspector and his team, as new murders shake the idyllic Swedish town.

Satanic crimes and ancient pagan beliefs will lead Anders into an underground world where the boundaries between reality and the supernatural will become blurred.