Homes are being burgled in Ystad and three neighbors form their own vigilante group. Soon Wallander is convinced the group has committed a double murder, although no bodies have been found.
An Asian woman is found dead in the water of Stockholm's archipelago. She has been murdered and everything indicates that she was a prostitute. Meanwhile a series of break-ins has occurred on an island outside of Stockholm. Suddenly a retired old man is also found dead in his own yard. Now Beck has two cases to solve and they both point in the same direction.
The kidnapping of a DA's wife, the murder of several minor criminals and the police finding a large stash of weapons is all in a day's work for criminal detective Roland Hassel.