Anno 1790

A number of children are found dead in the great piles of excrement and rubbish that line Stockholm's shoreline. Daadh's investigation leads him to the Great Orphanage, but there they claim to know nothing about the bodies. One of the children from the Orphanage is chosen to carry out the drawing in the Number Lottery, a popular event where large amounts of money are in play. And to Daadh's dismay and anger he is forced to concede that a child's life is worth little when money is at stake.

A landowner is found dead in the stables of his estate, kicked to death by his horse. Daadh soon determines that the tragic accident was actually a murder. He has no difficulty finding people who bore grudges against the victim, but is unable to tie any of them to the crime. Any member of the victim's family could have done it, but the evidence is very scanty. Then the chief constable intervenes and decides that the law must run its full course someone has to be found guilty!

Daadh is invited up to Uppsala by his old professor, who needs his help to find out who poisoned one of his students. Daadh involves himself in the case and quickly realises that his own life is in danger. Someone clearly doesn't like him snooping around. Meanwhile, subversive events take place at the home of chief constable back in Stockholm that will affect Daadh's future. And furthermore, his old enemy Marta Raxelius has decided to put her planned revenge into action but rather than striking at Daadh, the blow lands on someone else altogether.

Daadh's world has been shaken to its foundations. His friend Freund has disappeared and Daadh's worst enemy has taken the deathly ill chief constable's place. Through his knowledge of medicine, his courage and his ability to see patterns in seemingly unrelated events, Daadh succeeds in turning the situation around, and even uncovers a crime ring with connections to the highest levels of society. But suddenly he is harshly confronted by his own past and is forced to bargain with those in power in order to save his life. This experience causes him, for the first time, to seriously question his future as an officer of the law.