A young pregnant woman is buried in the sand, so that she slowly drowns as the tide rises. Twenty-five years later, the case remains unsolved. Olivia Rönning is assigned the case to work on, as cold-case training at the police academy.

Stilton finds his friend Vera severely beaten and is devastated. Olivia receives information about a former escort, Jackie Berglund, in connection with the Beach Case.

Olivia continues to look for information about Jackie Berglund, but goes a little too far when she visits Jackie's store, Odd & Right. Jackie has already heard that a young woman has been digging around in her past.

Children find a car in the water where they are swimming. Inside the car is a dead man. Stilton's old colleague and ally, Mette Olsäter, takes the case and quickly starts a murder investigation.

Olivia finally gets in contact with the man who witnessed the beach murder as a child, Ove Gardman.The police manage to get Nils Wendt's mobile phone working and find that his last call was to Linn Magnusson.