The year is 1883. The stark Icelandic winter landscape is the backdrop. We follow the priest, Skugga-Baldur, on his hunt for the enigmatic blue fox. From there were transported to the world of the naturalist Fridrik B. Fridriksson and his charge, Abba, who suffers from Downs syndrome, and who came to his rescue when he was on the verge of disaster. Then to a shipwreck off the Icelandic coast in the spring of 1868.The fates of all these characters are intrinsically bound and gradually, surprisingly, unravelled in this spellbinding fable that is part mystery, part fairy tale.