The year is 1940. Detective Sergeant Mujunen, familiar to  readers of White Heat, is swept up in a new, more poignant  chain of events. Mujunen, in mourning for the death of his wife,  meets the Lithuanian dancer Ilse Anders at the cemetery, and  his heart skips a beat. But his troubles are far from over.

A Finnish commuter plane vanishes after taking off from  Tallinn, a bank is robbed in Kerava, and riots flare in Helsinki,  the protesters demanding peace and brotherhood between  Finland and the Soviet Union. Also involved is a big time  gangster, Finnish-American Bill Kovanen, arrived too late to  take part in the Winter War. Crime journalist Ossi Koho and photographer Sanna Rytkönen  suspect a conspiracy: what if everything is connected with the accident where actress Sirkka  Sari fell into the chimney of the Aulanko Hotel? The last act is played out on the windy shore  of the Ice Sea, where Mujunen’s faith in mankind is put to the test.