Amid Iceland's wild, volcanic landscape, rumours swirl of an ancient manuscript containing a long-lost saga about a ring of terrible power. The manuscript, which is believed to have inspired Tolkein's Lord of the Rings, exists...but why is it worth killing for? Untangling murder from myth is Iceland-born, Boston-raised homicide detective Magnus Jonson. Seconded to the Icelandic Police Force for his own protection after he runs afoul of a drug cartel back in Boston, Magnus also has his own reasons for returning to the country of his birth for the first time in nearly two decades - to investigate the unsolved murder of his father.