In a quiet Copenhagen home, the body of a girl, Julia Stender, is discovered—on her face there is a cut-out pattern. The investigation is assigned to detectives Jeppe Kerner and Annette Werner. They establish a connection between Julia and an elderly woman who used to rent her apartment to Julia. The woman’s name is Esther di Laurenti, and it seems she has staged the murder—in the literal sense of the words…