The Icelandic Elsa is not a woman others dare to mess with. When a pregnant supermodel living in New York in the eighties, she throws diamonds at her Russian boyfriend in a rage, with disastrous results.
Twenty-five years later Elsa’s daughter Katrin—a shy ballet-dancer—begins to unravel the lies her mother told her. Elsa is now a successful Internet entrepreneur, but a secretive recluse. Katrin’s determination to find out who her real father is, propels the strained mother-daughter relationship into an unpredictable direction.
In New York and in Iceland, Katrin’s path intersects with colorful characters, including her unconventional stepfather, an ambitious boyfriend, a ballet diva, her Icelandic grandparents, a threatening ex-con, a restless private detective, a stunning Brit, audacious Uzbeks, and Alexei, the enigmatic diamond tycoon.