After being unceremoniously forced into early retirement at the age of 64, Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir of the Reykjavik Police is refusing to go quietly. Hulda is told to pick a cold case to investigate for two more weeks, and then she must pack up her desk. She knows just the one. A young woman found dead on the seaweed-covered rocks of the Vatnsleysuströnd who was waiting to be granted asylum. Her death was ruled a suicide after a slapdash investigation. But when Hulda starts to ask questions she soon realises that there was something more to this case.