After a long day at the office, Ine opens the gate to her own house. She lives with Jarl and her daughter Hedda, who is disappearing out of their life. The house is empty, but there are strange traces everywhere, and a vaguely sinister atmosphere enshrouds the property – the water is rising in the pond by the rhododendron bush down at the end of the garden, the sink is clogged up, and someone has drunk from the wine bottle.

Hedda started doing what she wanted long ago. She won’t even say if she’ll be joining them on their summer vacation. Ine is troubled by seeing Hedda and a stranger on their couch late one night, and she thinks about the young man who came for a consultation earlier that day. Why did he just sit there, staring at the photo of Hedda. Why did he leave before she could make a diagnosis? And why did he push her so aggressively as he passed her on the way home?

Lacuna is a novel about waiting, about living in the void left by an almost adult daughter, and about saving a rhododendron bush from drowning.