1944: In the trenches outside Leningrad, on the Eastern Front, a handful of Norwegians in German military uniforms fight for a sacred cause: a free Norway. They come from completely different social and political backgrounds. The most daring of them all, Daniel Gudeson, falls dead from a bullet and his body is buried in a mass grave. A little while later, in a military hospital in Vienna, a wounded man is hospitalized under the name Daniel Gudeson. There he will meet love in the face of Helene, a nurse. When the wounded man receives orders to move to the southern part of the Eastern Front, essentially a ticket to death, he and Helene will plan their escape.
1999: An old man wanders the streets of Oslo. Shortly before, his doctor has informed him that he has only a few months to live. He thinks about World War II. He knows he has one last mission to complete before he dies.

Harry Hole mistakenly shoots an American secret agent during President Clinton's visit to Norway. While awaiting his humiliating dismissal from the police force, Hole is transferred to the anti-terrorism unit (POT) and gets a promotion. They stick him in a sunless office, flipping through reports of low-priority cases. However, the case that falls into his hands is particularly interesting: a gang of arms dealers likely has ties to old and new Nazis. A veteran of the Eastern Front of World War II is found murdered, and Harry Hole finds evidence linking him not only to the present and the recent past but also to the near future, and this is the most disturbing part...