Disgraced, damaged former police officer Thorkild Aske has stopped taking his painkillers after his last experience searching for the missing in northern Norway. Wracked by withdrawal and desperate for work, he reluctantly agrees to investigate the disappearance of two schoolgirls for bestselling crime writer Milla Lind - but he soon discovers that Lind's interest in the case is not, as she claims, simply research for her latest novel.