In a remote Swedish farmhouse, an elderly farmer has been bludgeoned to death, his wife left to die with a noose around her neck. Before the old woman dies, she utters the word foreign, which may be the only real clue the police have to go on. And they need to work fast. The press has reported the dying word, and white supremacists have threatened a nearby refugee camp, vowing to take justice into their own hands. Recently divorced, overweight, drinking too much and not sleeping enough, and maybe failingfor the beautiful but married prosecutor Anette Brolin, Police Inspector Kurt Wallander doggedly leads the investigation into a crime for which there seems to be no reason, or certainly not one Wallander is sure he wants to know.
One frozen January morning at 5 am, Inspector Wallander responds to what he believes is a routine call out. When he reaches the isolated farmhouse he discovers a bloodbath. An old man has been tortured and beaten to death, his wife lies barely alive beside his shattered body, both victims of a violence beyond reason.
