A murder disguised as a suicide. A doctor, having an affair and set to inherit his wife's millions, becomes a suspect. However, there is not enough hard evidence to arrest him. Detective Erlendur takes on the case in an unofficial capacity. He learns that the wife was obsessed with the 'after-life", having kept a secret for 40 years - her mother had murdered her father, and had sworn Mari to secrecy. Was Maria seeing ghosts or was she delusional? Erlendur also began to wonder about his won brother's death in a snow storm. It does seem that the doctor got away with murder.
