Follows the story of Luce, a young woman who is sent to a cult-like rehab facility called Sword & Cross to serve time for a crime she can't remember committing. Among the other residents, she encounters the enigmatic Daniel and exasperating but irresistible Cam, all of whom are under the watchful eye of the sinister chief doctor Howson, and devout twin sisters Miriam and Sophia. Luce must untangle the mystery of who she is and why she has a connection to Daniel that goes far back beyond their time in the institution

A cruise ship rescues 28 refugees from the Mediterranean. When the captain is ordered to head for Libya, the situation escalates.

Journalist Daniel Mandelkern leaves Hamburg on assignment to interview Dirk Svensson, a reclusive children's book author who lives alone on the Italian side of Lake Lugano with his three-legged dog. After stumbling on a manuscript of Svensson's about a complicated menage a trois, Mandelkern is plunged into mysteries past and present.

Uncovering the background that led to the fateful meeting and how the political drama took its course.