The annual Medieval Festival is going on in Visby. A secret theater company has taken the St. Clement Church Ruins as their private stage at night. In its center, there is a double tomb from the 12th century where a young woman and an elderly man were buried. They were brutally murdered, butchered in their sleep.
History repeats itself in the theater. As an initiation rite, sixteen-year-old Malva must spend a night in the grave and then get out by her own efforts.
Maria Wern is approached by Mikael, Malva's father, who is worried. He tells Maria that his wife, Blenda, has been lying in a coma in a nursing home ever since she was hit by a drunk driver a year ago. Malva has not been seen since Wednesday, when she was visiting her mother at Katarinagården.
Attending an office party, Maria Wern meets a firefighter and falls head over heels in love. He is a member of the theater company where he plays the part of Gregory, a friar dedicated to a life in chastity and poverty. Does he know what happened to Malva?
In the thirteenth book in Anna Jansson's cherished series about Maria Wern, the detective must set her life at stake in order to find out what really happened in When Beauty Came to Town.
