Libellous pamphlets against the king are being distributed around town. When Daadh is going to interrogate the person who printed them, the man is found murdered, his skull crushed in his own printing press. Daadh's investigation brings him in contact with a beautiful and radical young French woman, and, after a few more gruesome murders are committed, Daadh realises that the old adage holds true hell hath no greater fury than a woman scorned. This is just as true of Marta Raxelius, who is convinced that Daadh killed her brother and will stop at nothing to get her revenge.

A bomb explodes in one of Stockholm's packed coffee houses. Daadh's investigation of the attack is interrupted by an order for him to put a stop to the illegal church services held by a pietistic congregation - of which Simon Freund is secretly a member. No sooner has Daadh taken care of this crisis - in his own manner - then suddenly another murder takes place that demands his attention. A respected priest in the state church is found burned to death. Daadh starts to sense that there is an unexpected link between the two murders, and that the perpetrator could be found in unsettlingly close proximity...