It is bitter mid-winter when Katrine and Joakim Westin move with their children to an old manor house on the Swedish island of Öland. But their new home is no remote idyll. Just days later, a member of Joakim's family is found drowned off the rocks nearby.
While Joakim struggles to keep his sanity, Tilda Davidsson - a young policewoman fresh out of college - becomes convinced that there's a killer on the island.
Then on Christmas Eve, a blizzard strikes. Isolated by the snow, Joakim is unaware that visitors-as unwelcome as they are terrifying- are making their way towards him. For this is the darkest night of the year, the night when the living meet the dead...