Strange things happen at Katthamra manor. Admiral Hägg is on watch duty at four in the morning regardless of whether he's alive or dead. In the forest with the twisted trees it's easy to get lost because clocks stop running and compasses no longer work. This could be due to the gnome Bysen or the Little People Underground. Andreas Nilsson, 9 years old, thinks about these things and about the minesweeper Albatross as he rides his bicycle from the graveyard with a stolen skull securely fastened on his bike rack. Together with his brother he has discovered a secret, but his brother is buried at the cementary. The cause of death was drowning, or was it? Detective Inspector Maria Wern spends the summer working on the island of Gotland to gain some peace and quiet and to get some distance from her divorce. Just before midsummer the police receive a report of a missing nine-year-old boy after a party at Herrvik's fishing camp. The search includes the caves in the hills above Östergarn School. Throughout the years, school children have scratched their names on the wall in one of the caves. Maria Wern discovers two names, encircled by a heart. Old love never dies - or is that exactly what does happen to it?