Inspector Hector Salgado, the salty hero of The Summer of Dead Toys, returns in another crime thriller set in Barcelona during a cold snap. Senior staff at Alemany Cosmetics come home with a secret after a team-building retreat in a remote country house. Each has anonymously received a photo showing dogs hanging dead from a tree near the farm. Now they're committing suicide, one by one. The connection between the gut-wrenching photos and heartbreaking suicides remains a befuddling mystery—one that racks Barcelona's executive think tanks, and could lead to a frightening end. Deciphering the personalitites of these youthful executives and their power structures isn't easy, but Inspector Salgado has his own ways of making them speak. Meanwhile, Barcelona is freezing, suffering from an unusual cold spell and Salgado's wife, Ruth, is still missing. Salgado must break through the icily furtive layers of this young group in order to save his family, his reputation, and his city.