One of the singers in a Salvation Army concert is shot in the head at point-blank range and killed. Investigator Harry Hole has little to work with. As the search closes in, the killer becomes increasingly desperate, and Harry’s chase takes him to the most forbidden corners of the former Yugoslavia. Yet it’s when he returns to Oslo that he encounters true darkness: among the homeless junkies and Salvationists, eagerly awaiting a savior to deliver them from misery.