Ida a good-natured happy girl is looking forward to her tenth birthday when she gets on her brand new bike & sets off to buy sweets. She should be back within half an hour but she never returns. Her mother frantic with worry calls the shop friends & family but no one has seen her daughter. As the relatives reach breaking point & the media circus begins Inspector Sejer is calm & reassuring but inside he is worried: missing children are normally found within forty-eight hours. Ida seems to have vanished without a trace.