Three hours outside Stockholm, beyond a mountain range, a vast and scorching desert stretches out. Tracks of wild animals mark the sand. Sarah lives alone on the plains, having fled the conflicts of the city in search of peace. But inside her it is anything but calm, and the desert is not as empty as she first believed.

One night, the sky beyond the mountains glows red, and the dull thuds of explosions echo across the landscape. Sarah receives an email from her activist son Manne, who tells her about the riots and urges her to return. The situation soon escalates into war, refugees begin arriving on the desert plains, and the fragile outer peace gives way to lawless violence and wild adventures.

Sarah is now forced to face the conflicts she has tried to escape, in encounters with both strangers and people from her past. The possibility of healing and building a new community emerges when Manne and his pregnant girlfriend seek shelter in the desert. At the same time, Sarah finds a companion in one of the desert's animals – a creature whose predatory instincts and wild nature are said to be impossible to tame.

Desert Dogs is a Swedish western novel with worn tyres and sand in every corner. It is a fateful story about loss and resilience, about the sparse and solitary life that is as quiet as it is violent – but also about the power of the collective.