Kurt and his men tries to find the connection between a horrible murder taken place in Ystad and the kidnapping of one in the police force daughter. It also seems someone has infiltrated the police and control every move the police make.
A girl disappears on her way to school, and suspicion falls on her father who has been fighting for her custody. Wallander's investigation is helped when he visits a woman whom he had arrested when her own daughter disappeared.
When a small-time crook is killed by a sniper, Wallander and the Ystad police investigate. Meanwhile, trainee policeman Pontus is forced to reconsider his career.
When Wallander investigates the death of a woman during a house robbery, suspicion falls on the victim's ex-boyfriend; and Isabelle discovers she knew the women from the gym.
While trying to solve a missing-person case, the team stumbles across a far more sinister child-prostitution racket. Meanwhile Kurt is tested for prostate cancer.
Kurt Wallander has bought a dream house by the sea, but his peace and quiet is soon shattered when a man is murdered and an explosion shuts down Ystad's electricity grid.
Homes are being burgled in Ystad and three neighbours form their own vigilante group. Soon Wallander is convinced the group have committed a double murder, although no bodies have been found.
Military exercises in Ystad make solving five murders difficult. To make things worse, Kurt finds one of the murdered women was a school friend and the first girl he had ever kissed.