Stopping to use a cash machine one evening, a man inexplicably falls to the ground: dead. A taxi driver is brutally murdered by two teenage girls. Quickly apprehended, they appal local policemen with their total lack of remorse. One girl escapes police custody and disappears without a trace.
Soon afterwards, a blackout covers half the country. When an engineer arrives at the malfunctioning power station, he makes a grisly discovery. Inspector Kurt Wallander is sure that these events must be linked - somehow.
Hampered by the discovery of betrayals in his own team, lonely and frustrated, Wallander begins to loose conviction in his role as a detective. The search for answers leads Wallander dangerously close to a shadowy group of anarchic terrorists, hidden within the anonymity of cyberspace.
Somehow these criminals seem always to know the police's next move and Wallander finds himself fighting to outsmart them.