A blue car is parked by a side road in the beautiful landscape of Skåne in southern Sweden. A child sits alone without an adult in sight. The child's father has been reported as missing, while the mother is in a psychiatric institution, unresponsive and apathetic. Kurt Wallander's failing health sees Linda take the lead in the case. It will touch her deeply as she discovers that the child has been unscrupulously tricked, exploited and humiliated.

The national election is approaching, and the Ystad town square is plastered with election posters with local labour party candidate Kenneth Nillson, a politician fighting the fear of immigrants as his electoral focal point. He sees it as his duty to clean Skane's reputation as being racist.

At the same time a train rolls into the train station in Gdansk, Poland. On the train the police find a African male with most of his face shoot away. As the man was murdered in Ystad, the starting point of the train journey this becomes a case for Kurt Wallander and the Ystad police. For Kurt Wallander the case takes an unexpected turn as the murder weapon has ties to a childhood friend.

The Ystad Police finds a boat in Ystad harbour resembling a slaughter house. There is blood everywhere, but no bodies.

Soon there after a dead woman’s body floats ashore. One of the clues in the investigation leads to Oskar Ung, an old love of Linda Wallander. Their previous relationship hinders Linda's work with the case, and Kurt demands that she leaves the investigation But that turns out to be easier said than done. Old love never rusts.

Carina Olsson provides the Malmo police information on drug deals comitted at her restaurant. She does this after being promissed anonymity for the Police. 2 days later Carina is found shot. The execution is witnesed by Carina's 7 year old daughter Cleo. Cleo manages to escape and is in hospital in a state off shock.

The murder happens on the ourscirts of Ystad, and is thus asigned to Kurt Walander and his collegaues. With the connections to Malmo the Ystad polie recieves help from Frank Bork (Malmo Police). For PSI Stefan Lindman, who allready displayed signs of mental instability, working with Frank Borkg leads to a round trip to hell. Frank teaches Stefan what it means to stand up for your collegueas, no matter what.

Eleven year old Johannes is found dead in a crevice. The postmortem shows that the boy has been sexually abused and beaten to death. Detectiv Stefan Lindman is a member of the same shooting club as the victims father and they are also friends. Therefore he becomes the one that has to tell the father what has happened to his son (Johannes). When the father finally understands what has happened he demands that Stefan personally gets the one responsible. Stefan is since a previous case being accused for abuse, because the internal investigation Stefan has to go on paid vacation, and he is not allowed to continue his investigation. But because of personal issues he continues the investigation anyway. He has a dark secret, a secret that has the answer to why he came to Ysta in the first place.

A wave of burglaries sweep through Ystad. A group of neighbours in the affected area decide to take matters into their own hands and start a neighbourhood watch. During one of their night shifts they spot a suspicious man and give him a serious beating.

The next day both the man and his car are missing. The Ystad police get contacted by a desperate Polish woman reporting her husband missing. The case is given low priority, but Wallander decides to take a closer look at the case and soon sees a potential solution as the clues lead him to a tghtly knit group of neighbours. The missing man’s body has still not been found, but Wallander finds a series of pictures of a dead woman on the missing man’s phone .....

A Russian concerto Cello player is the victim of a bomb attack after a performance in Ystad. The woman turns out to be a lead witness in a murder charge against a member of the Russian mafia, the son of one of their leaders, Leb Munchin. Wallander and his colleagues find themselves in the middle of a war against a powerful international opponent with ruthless methods. But Walalnder suspects that Leb Munchin’s motives aren’t about money and a quick profit, rather they relate to something much deeper. Eventually Walander stands eye to eye with an aged criminal who is ready to fight his last fight with all the means at his disposal.