When single mother Maríanna disappears from her home leaving an apologetic note on the kitchen table everyone assumes that she's taken her own life . . . until her body is found in the Grábrók lava fields seven months later clearly the victim of murder. Her neglected 15-year-old daughter Hekla has been placed in foster care but is her perfect new life hiding something sinister? Fifteen years earlier a desperate new mother lies in a maternity ward unable to look at her own child the start of an odd and broken relationship that leads to a shocking tragedy. Police officer Elma and her colleagues take on the case which becomes increasingly complex as the number of suspects grows and new light is shed on Maríanna's past - and the childhood of a girl who never was like the others . . .

Part of the Forbidden Iceland series.