Receiving a sealed bottle with a years-old plea for help by two young victims imprisoned in a boathouse by the sea, Detective Carl Mørck follows leads to a desperate woman trapped in a brutal marriage to a man who keeps her in isolation and hides deadly secrets.
Living on an island where all faiths coexist peacefully, precocious teen Peter and his siblings are shocked when their devout vicar father and eccentric artisan mother go missing at the height of an effort to boost church attendance.