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In his twenty years as a detective, Cnut has come up against all manner of murders and murderers, but there is always a surprise around the corner, and this killer supplies it. His chosen victims are all teenaged virgins, in their death poses portrayed as clowns and whores, with their private parts on full display and a religious message written on their foreheads. Cnut has seen versions of each of those features before, but there is a highly original twist: the girls, though virgins, are all pregnant.The Biblical quotations from the Book of Isiaih point to the men whose sperm has caused the pregnancies - men whose reputations the killer intends to destroy, and for a detective like Chief Inspector 'Pretty Boy' Lund, of the Stockholm police the knowledge of whose sperm was used is enough to close the case. Not so with Cnut, who sees beyond the obvious. With his own educationally-challenged, bipolar daughter abducted and likely to be used as a victim, he is driven to finding and stopping the killer before it is too late, even though he knows his life may well be forfeit - a bomb awaits him.

His fishing trip blown out of the water by an exploding Ferrari, Cnut is faced with having to try to bring to justice Henrik Lund, whose public face is that of a respected entrepreneur and government minister, but whose private life includes every crime from paedophilia to murder. Hanna Auge, whose teenage daughter was raped and murdered, is positive that Lund was the rapist and killer, and Cnut is swayed enough by her conviction to re-investigate the case, but Colonel Olssen, Cnut's long-time friend, and head of the Secret Service, warns Cnut away from investigating Lund too deeply. He has men undercover in Lund's organisation, who have found out that Lund intends a coup to take over the country, and does not want Lund spooked - effectively tying Cnut's hands, but when Ilse is kidnapped by Lund's men, all bets are off.