Blackeberg is a Stockholm suburb in Sweden where most of the novel takes place. When the story begins, Blackeberg has only been in existence for about 30 years. Designed as a modern suburb with three-story, cookie-cutter apartment buildings, people initially flock to Blackeberg in hopes of a peaceful life. Blackeberg offers most everything to new residents, including a fresh start without the burden of history: “[Blackeberg residents] were beyond the grasp of the mysteries of the past […] It tells you something of how free they were from the ghosts of history and of terror. It explains in part how unprepared they were” (2). The suburb’s lack of history means that residents couldn’t understand or identify anything monstrous or mysterious in their midst until it was too late. No one thought, for instance, to question the mysterious father and daughter who moved in quietly one night. After a series of tragic events, the driver who moved the family in determines not to tell a soul that he helped the strange family in any way. 

Oskar Eriksson listens intently while the Vällingby police commissioner, Gunnar Holmberg, lectures Oskar’s class on drugs. When Holmberg asks students to name a bag of white powder, no one answers for fear of connection to drug use.