One cold autumn night, a woman is found hanging from a beam in her summer cottage by Lake Thingvellir. At first sight it appears to be a straightforward case of suicide; the woman, María, had never recovered from the loss of her mother two years earlier & had a history of depression. But when Karen, the friend who found her body, approaches Erlendur & gives him the tape of a séance that María had attended, his curiosity is aroused.
Driven by a need to find answers that even he does not fully underst&, Erlendur embarks on an unofficial investigation to find out why the woman