Keefe immerses the reader in the unique life circumstances of Dutch attorney Astrid Holleeder, who lives in hiding after testifying against a powerful criminal. Her situation includes elaborate safety protocols, such as seeking out “buildings with basement parking, in order to minimize her exposure during the brief transit to a bulletproof car” (24). She frequently uses disguises for her rare public sojourns. Astrid has testified against a gangster known as “The Nose”; Keefe emphasizes that her fear is rooted in personal experience: “she used to be his legal adviser […] more to the point, she is his younger sister” (25). Astrid remains tortured by her choice to turn her brother Wim Holleeder in and give evidence in his trial.

The Holleeder siblings grew up in a working-class neighborhood, and their father, an abusive man with alcoholism, worked for the Heineken brewery. Keefe notes that the Netherlands strikes many as a peaceful country, but that this stereotype obscures the prevalence of the drug trade through the country’s ports and the persistence of organized crime. Wim began by “providing muscle for landlords looking to evict squatters” (27) together with his childhood best friend, Cor van Hout.