A horse breeder is found dead, and almost everything indicates that he has been kicked by his horse. But the post-mortem shows the opposite, the horse breeder had been hit to death and that's a case for Kurt Wallander. The neighbors confirm that he lived alone, but he had visits from a mysterious woman several times. Surprising evidence on the farm shows a whole new side of the horse breeder and somewhere, in the beautiful state of Skåne, there's a dark world that doesn't want to see the daylight.

An American woman is found murdered in Ystad. She has visited an internationally renowned photographer in Ystad, and her husband suspects her of infidelity. Kurt Wallander digs deeper into the woman’s background and her husband, as he believes that there is more to the case than meets the eye. The solution turns out to come from far outside of Sweden.

A lorry has been parked outside of Ystad for several days, and when PC Linda Wallander investigates the lorry she finds it full of dead people. The only survivor is a small child. The Dead have no ID's or documentation and the lorry is stolen. The police start a difficult case to try to find the people behind the crime.

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.

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.