Wallander investigates the brutal slaying of an elderly couple at an isolated farmhouse.

Wallander decides to resign from the police after killing a man in the line of duty. A solicitor-friend asks Wallander to investigate the suspicious death of his father in an apparent car accident.

Wallander investigates the murder of an elderly bird-watcher, found impaled on sharpened bamboo poles. When another man is reported missing, Wallander realise he is looking for a serial killer.