Wallander has already experienced a lot, but this time even he is shocked: Holger Eriksson, a retired car dealer and writer of well-behaved nature poetry, has been pierced by sharpened bamboo sticks in a pile pit. The investigation is overshadowed by the death of his father Povel, with whom the detective had a broken relationship...

Wallander is in the midst of his worst crisis yet. He can't cope with the fact that he had to shoot a man in self-defense. Drunk on alcohol and pills, the traumatized policeman spends his days in a remote boarding house. Even a visit from his old friend Sten Torstensson fails to shake him out of his lethargy...

Kurt Wallander is certainly not xenophobic. But when his daughter Linda introduces him to her Syrian boyfriend Jamal over dinner, he can barely hide his bias. An emergency call frees him from the embarrassing situation. An old couple on a remote farm have been attacked and savagely mauled...