It s December in the quiet Swedish town of Kymlinge, and the Hermansson family are gathering to celebrate father, Karl-Erik, and eldest daughter, Ebba s , joint landmark birthdays. But beneath the guise of happy festivities, tensions are running high, and it s not long before the night takes a dark, and unexpected turn . . .The following morning, two members of the Hermansson family are missing, and it s up to Inspector Barbarotti - a detective who spends as much of his time debating the existence of God as he does solving cases - to determine exactly what happened that night. But he soon discovers he ll have to unravel a tangle of sinister family secrets in the process . . .