In 1987, Nete Hermansen plans revenge on those who abused her in her youth, including Curt Wad, a charismatic surgeon who was part of a movement to sterilize wayward girls in 1950s Denmark. More than twenty years later, Detective Carl already has plenty on his mind when he is presented with the case of a brothel owner, a woman named Rita, who went missing in the eighties. New evidence has emerged in the case that destroyed the lives of his two partners-the case that sent Carl to Department Q. But when Carl's assistants, Assad and Rose, learn that numerous other people disappeared around the same weekend as Rita, Carl takes notice.