The A-Unit has its hands full when celebrated Jewish neuroscientist Leonard Sheinkman is found murdered, strung up from a tree in a Jewish cemetery; a group of women escape from an immigration board hostel, where they are being exploited as prostitutes, and flee the country; and a body is found half eaten in the wolverine enclosure of a Stockholm zoo.

When Söderstedt is sent to Italy in pursuit of leads linked to the wolverine killing, he crosses paths with a treacherous Mafia boss. Soon he finds himself in Germany following up leads from the murdered Leonard Sheinkman's war diaries, while also trying to unravel the mystery of the inheritance he has received from his uncle.