In the autumn of 1793, a mutilated corpse was found in the rotten Fatbureni lake, where the water washes away garbage from all over Södermalm. Cecil Winge, a former prosecutor who has helped the Stockholm police to solve crimes more than once, takes up the case of the mysterious deceased. But his health is getting worse every day, and it looks like the case will be his swan song. There is little time left, and the coming winter promises to be the most difficult in recent decades.Uncovering the stories of the four protagonists of the novel, Niklas Nutt-o-Dag shows the reader the luxury and decline of the post-Gustavian era, the triumph of carnal desires and bloody crimes, disasters and despair - but also hopes and aspirations for change, which laid the foundations of modern Swedish society.