A heat wave hits a holiday-quiet Oslo. In an apartment by the cemetery, small black lumps begin to drip through the floor. At the same time - police detective Harry Hole is lying on the floor in his small apartment, drunk, dismissed and abandoned by his girlfriend. In the hunt for his corrupt colleague Tom Waaler, Harry has lost his closest colleague and only he knows that Tom Waaler is behind the murder. At the same time, another woman is found murdered with an index finger cut off. Harry Hole gets his last mission. Along with the only other first officer not on vacation: Tom Waaler.