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Kurt Wallander is a police inspector in the Swedish town of Ystad. Shortly after he has seen a young girl kill herself by self-immolation, he is called to investigate the murder of government minister Wetterstedt. He has been scalped. Wealthy business-man Carlman is murdered in the same fashion, and a serial killer is clearly responsible. Drunken ex-journalist Lars Magnusson points Wallander towards Sandin, a retired and corrupt cop, who admits that he once 'cleaned up' for both the dead men but will offer no more information. The next murder is that of an habitual criminal, who has been tortured before death. His estranged wife and teen aged son are not grief-stricken. His behaviour has traumatized his younger son and sent his daughter into a mental hospital. Following another scalping, and an appeal to the public, a former prostitute tells Wallander that all the victims were connected with a vice ring, importing very young girls into Sweden. The girl who killed herself was probably among them. A raid on Sandin's house reveals girls lined up for the sex trade concealed in his cellar. He is clearly the next intended victim of the scalper and Wallander has no qualms in using him as bait in the trap.
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Eighteen-year-old Sonia admits to the vicious knifing and robbery of a taxi-driver, but she is an unhelpful interviewee, claiming 'it doesn't matter anymore', before escaping custody during a power cut. Next day her dead body is discovered. The police must also investigate the bizarre demise of Mr. Falk, a physically perfect 47-year-old specimen, who nonetheless dropped down dead in the street. To add to the mystery, his corpse is stolen - from the mortuary slab next to Sonia's - and later found with the hands and feet removed. Sonia's father tells Wallander that she was raped three years earlier but her attacker escaped justice due to a false alibi given by his father - the taxi-driver she murdered. Wallander's belief that the cases are connected is justified when a search of Falk's office reveals a computer set-up identical to that of Sonia's boyfriend, who is the next victim. In fact, all three murder victims are shown to be misguided idealists, members of a cell out to cripple the international banking system via computer hacking but disposed of when they had outlived their purpose. At least Wallander's private life picks up when he meets a charming divorcee through an internet dating service arranged by his daughter. Although. . .
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Three youngsters are shot dead whilst having a woodland picnic in fancy dress. One girl's mother reports her as missing but postcards from Paris supposedly sent by the daughter negate any police involvement. Then another parent reports that Wallander's troubled colleague, Svedberg, had earlier expressed an interest in the kids' movements, and then Svedberg is also found shot, photos of the dead trio being found in his flat along with one of a mystery woman, identified by Svedberg's cousin as his ex-girlfriend Louise. The corpses are found, and a friend of the victims is also slain, having told Wallander that his workmate was really gay, and that 'Louise' is a transvestite, and a wholly murderous one, who adds to his toll of dead by killing a further trio of innocents. Diagnosed as diabetic and aware that he never truly knew the dead colleague who regarded him as his best friend, Wallander must not only avenge Svedberg but halt a psychopath from an ordinary but obvious walk of life from striking far closer to home.
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Police Inspector Kurt Wallander and his team investigate the murder of an elderly farm couple, Maria and Johannes Lovgren. Nothing seemed to have been taken from their run-down house so the police initially rule out robbery as a motive. They subsequently learn from Johannes's brother that the dead man was actually quite wealthy and when the bank confirms he withdrew a large sum every calendar quarter, they revise their ideas about a possible motive. Of equal concern to Wallander is a news report that Maria Johannes' last word to him before she died was that her attacker was a foreigner. Soon, the migrant farm workers in the area for the harvest are being targeted by vigilantes. Meanwhile, Wallander is having his own problems. He's in less than good health - he's a diabetic - and he's not sure he approves of his daughter's new boyfriend. As well, his father's dementia is worsening and he faces the prospect of having to institutionalize him.
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Lawyer Sten Tostensson tells Wallander he believes his old father's death in a car crash was homicide but Wallander is reluctant to act until Sten is found hanged and the pathologist claims that he was murdered. Sten's secretary shows Wallander a postcard of Africa with a text threatening the lives of father and son and wealthy philanthropist Harderberg, a client of Sten's, admits to also having received one.All were posted from the same hotel,apparently by industrialist Jurgen Nordfeldt, who survives an attempt to kill him. Nordfeldt had stumbled on a racket importing body parts from Africa which Wallander, helped by ex-cop Anders,now Harderberg's security guard, must resolve.
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Three elderly men, Holger Eriksson, Gosta Runfeldt and Eugen Blomberg, are murdered in seemingly unrelated incidents. The smell of perfume on Runfeldt's suitcase suggests a woman's involvement. None are mourned by their families, who regarded them as bullies and womanizers, which shocks Wallander, whose own father has just died. A dedication in a book by Eriksson to a woman called Krista leads to the members of a former self-help group for abused women, attended by Vanja, Runfeldt's ex-lover. Is one of these women the killer?
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The discovery of two slain youths in a dinghy which washes into Ystad brings hard-drinking Latvian detective Karlis Liepa from Riga. He tells Wallander they were his informants in a drug-smuggling ring after the dinghy,containing cocaine,is stolen. Liepa is murdered on his return home,Wallander travelling to Riga to learn that the secretive detective did not show his case notes to his colleagues.After Wallander has discovered that his hotel room is bugged and he is being shadowed journalist Sergei Upitis tells him that Liepa was investigating corruption in his own force but Upitis is framed for Liepa's murder and found hanged in his cell,the Riga police then closing the case. However,Wallander,working with Liepa's widow Baiba and her cousin Inese,locate the missing case notes to unmask the traitor in the Latvian force.
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An elderly woman is murdered in a wood by a man she saw setting fire to swans. He buries her corpse with a bible annotating the book of Revelations and from his finger-prints he is identified as Jannek Langas,a religious maniac and arsonist. He has escaped from a secure unit but nonetheless has a healthy bank account in an assumed name. At the same time Anna,a friend of Linda,disappears after a cryptic visit to Wallander. Following Langas's suicide by immolation Wallander learns that Langas and Anna belonged to the same,fundamentalist Christian group and that other members are dying. Wallander must discover who is behind the killings and whether Anna is accomplice or victim - or even alive.
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Shortly after being attacked in the street Wallander investigates the murder of widow Erika Hjelmqvist, whose young daughter Hannah has also vanished. Neighbours point Wallander towards the feud between Erika and her tenants, a menacing gang of bikers led by unhelpful Gustav Ericsson, an ageing recidivist, whose son Pontus becomes a prime suspect. A visit from an old flame proves a pleasant diversion before Wallander learns that Hannah was in care and had a secret boyfriend - a revelation leading to her discovery and closure of the case. However Wallander has his own medical problems, causing a suspension from duties.
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When his daughter Linda's father-in-law Haken disappears the newly reinstated Wallander assists detective Yttenberg in trying to find him. Learning that Haken had been a submariner thirty years earlier Wallander believes he was keeping secrets relating to that period of his life from his wife Louise, another secret being Haken's severely disabled daughter Signe, whom he would visit surreptitiously. following a suspicious death Wallander's own dementia begins to slowly kick in but he still unearths events from the 1980s when Haken was possibly leading a double life. In locating the missing man Wallander discovers the truth about these accusations and is able to close his very last case.
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