Kurt Wallander has bought a dream house by the sea, but his peace and quiet is soon shattered when a man is murdered and an explosion in one of Ystad's power grids shuts down the electricity in the whole city.

Foreign correspondent Morgan Pålsson and his photographer Robert Flycht are sent on assignment to an unknown North African country – Matóbo. The assignment is to cover the country's elections, but instead a military coup breaks out and Morgan turns out to be the only foreign journalist on the scene. This is his chance to show what he's made of.

A man is beaten to death in the Middle East. In Stockholm, a young woman disappears on her way home from work. These two events will prove to be related. Since Martin Beck has quit, Steinar Hovland leads the search for the missing girl. But Martin is drawn into the case when he decides to help the national Security Police investigate a suspected terrorist. They soon realize that they are in a race against time to stop a catastrophe.