Anna a teacher with alcohol related problems wakes up one morning in her house and finds a dead 16-year old boy on her bedroom floor. She have no clue how he got there but soon convinces herself she caused his death and is imprisoned for the murder. Her brother Tommy refuses to believe she is guilty and starts to investigate the case.

Five-year-old Sara has a very special gift. She can fly. When her mother discovers this she promptly takes Sara to the hospital. The doctors poke, prod and probe as doctors invariably do, and it's no fun at all for young Sara. No one understands her. The thing is that she can only fly when she's so happy that it tingles in her tummy.

In a playground in the centre of the urban idyll, the police find a buried wooden box containing a famous and well-respected prosecutor. Martin Beck and his police team initially suspect a highly criminal MC-leader of the attack, but one pretty soon has to re-evaluate the case once the MC-leader is found murdered in a similar wooden box. Soon, more wooden boxes are found and the police realize that they are part of a cat and mouse game with a crazy serial killer. The investigation soon shows that there is a vague connection between the victims in the shape of a 9 year old event, but what Martin Beck does not suspect is that his own life too is at stake, as the murderer has chosen him as the next victim.