Sixteen years ago, rookie cop Tommy Bergmann was on the scene when a teenage girl's mutilated body was discovered in the woods. Schoolteacher Anders Rask confessed to the murder, along with five others. He was sentenced to live out his days in a mental institution outside of Oslo, and the case appeared closed. That is, until now...

Amid a brutal Norwegian winter, now-detective Bergmann is called to the scene of the assault of a young Lithuanian prostitute. Her injuries bear a shocking resemblance to those of Rask's victims. Tommy cannot ignore the unsettling questions this crime raises: Is Rask involved or, worse, inspiring a copycat? Or is the real serial killer still out there, roaming the shadowy, frigid streets of Oslo, poised to commit another murder?

Faced with the new attack and Rask's recently recanted confession, Tommy is forced to reopen the old case that still haunts him and confront the demons of his own grim and complicated history. As he works to untangle the complex web of connections between the past and present, his closed case just might become a cold case - with a truth more chilling than he could have imagined.