A shipping container is mysteriously dumped in the Swedish port town of Norrtalje. Due to their ignorance of its ownership it isn't until a week has passed that the authorities can have it forced open. There the remains of twenty eight refugees are found, a situation of unrelenting horror.

Not only that; a black sludge pours out which contaminates the river and is the cause of a new, sickening dread that affects Norrtalje's inhabitants, causing a lack of trust, aggression, violence. It seems like an end to Kindness.

Six characters are at the centre of this extraordinary novel, six people in search of love and connection, whose extraordinary qualities will confront the metaphysical illness consuming their town.

'As Lindqvist has increasingly devoted himself to the subtle plumbing of the human soul he has become a distinctive and urgent voice in contemporary literature' Svenska Dagbladet