The diagnosis is as clear as it is shocking: Alzheimer's disease. Kurt Wallander must now come to terms with the fact that his life will soon change radically. Although surprisingly calm, he doesn't find the opportunity to tell his daughter Linda. As he is still pondering the appropriate words, she beats him to it with further worrying news: her father-in-law Hakan von Enke has disappeared without a trace...

Inspector Wallander and his young colleague Tobias Eliasson make a gruesome discovery in a ditch by the side of the road: the body of a woman who has been stabbed to death lies there. She lived in seclusion with her daughter Hannah in a nearby village. Wallander learns from neighbors that the murdered woman and a local motorcycle club were at odds with each other...

For days there has been no trace of the missing teacher Inga Hedeman, who works in the townships of Cape Town. Inspector Wallander, currently in South Africa for a conference, is willingly asked for help by the local police: he is to reassure Inga's husband, the social worker Axel...