A doll is caught in the net of a fishing boat. It’s covered in barnacles and worms after years in the ocean, but a woman onboard takes it home at the request of her young daughter. This simple act of kindness sets into motion a series of fateful events, and five years later, skeletonized remains emerge from the ocean’s depths. Identifying the skeleton proves harder than initially thought: In a country where everyone knows their neighbor, an unknown missing person is an impossibility. As the mystery of the unidentified body deepens, Huldar dives into an investigation of a homeless drug addict’s murder, and Freyja investigates a suspected case of child abuse at a foster care home. The cases are linked through a single, missing witness: The young girl that wanted the doll all those years ago.

The Doll is the fifth installment in Yrsa Sigurdardóttir’s series about the psychologist Freyja and the police officer Huldar.