Synopsis

In the heathen "Rauhnächten" there is an unbridled exuberance in the former Viking town of Ribe. Chaos reigns even at the police station, where the conscientious patrol officer Ida Sörensen helps out on the night shift. At this moment, nobody thinks of the sadistic serial killer who kidnaps people and starves them to death in the forest. So Ida doesn't recognize Smillla Vestergaad either, who has been missing for days, was able to free herself from her shackles, now appears among all the disguised and drunk in the police station, but hardly gets a word out. When the young woman disappeared a little later, the policewoman found herself exposed to serious accusations from her older colleague Magnus Vinter. Ambitious Commissioner Olsen is certain that there is little time left to find the abductee alive. Regardless of responsibilities, Ida does everything to make up for her fatal mistake. In the case of an unexplained death 20 years ago, she suspects the starting point for the motif of the serial perpetrator, whose murders do not seem to fit into any profile. The fact that Ida dives into the past despite the greatest time pressure sounds completely absurd at first. The desperate policewoman, however, is not deterred and uncovered a tragic secret that was years ago and is now supposed to be atoned for.