Two families have created an idyllic life for themselves on one of the Oxen Islands. But when tragedy strikes, long-buried secrets come to light, friendships are undermined, and the paradise they built begins to fall apart.
Widow Clara and widower Ulf have an unusual commonality: Both mourn the loss of their spouses, but they cannot have them declared dead. Although there are no official doubts about the alleged suicide of Ulf's wife Anke or about the fatal glacier crash of Clara's husband Enno, the officer who complies with the paragraph insists on a corpse for the notarization - and that does not exist in either case. In order to at least support each other in letting go emotionally, Clara and Ulf set up an informal two-person self-help group after meeting them by chance. The self-confident perfumer and successful novelist soon awaken surprising feelings that go far beyond the usual grief work. However, the two are even more astonished to discover that their spouses seem to have certain similarities. A treacherous photo of Anke with Enno, her disappearance almost at the same time and the complicity in a fraud worth millions raise the suspicion that the departed have made off together.