'For several hours I believed that my daughter had drowned and my wife as alive, when in fact the reverse was true.'

It is bitter mid-winter when Katrine and Joakim Westin move with their children into the old manor house at Eel Point on the Swedish island of Oland. But their new home is no remote idyll. Just days later, Katrine is found drowned off the rocks nearby.

While Joakim struggles to keep his sanity, Tilda Davidsson - a young policewoman fresh out of college- becomes convinced that Katrine was murdered.

Then, on Christmas Eve, a blizzard hits Eel Point. Isolated by the snow, Joakim does not know that visitors - as unwelcome as they are terrifying - are making their way towards him.

For this is the darkest night of the year, the night when the living meet the dead ...