Shortly after police discovers the murder of three friends, police inspector Wallander finds his friend and colleague Svedberg dead. First, it is believed that Svedberg killed himself but Wallander soon discovers links between Svedberg, the three friends and a fourth person, a young woman in a mental hospital.

The film is set in the middle of winter in Ystad and the main character is the middle-aged policeman Kurt Wallander, who this time investigating a drug tangle. It starts with his own goddaughter Eva found dead after taking an overdose. It turns out that heroin is unusually strong and Kurt are now beginning their search for those behind the drugs. But he has a big problem. His boss will not let him look for the person who he suspects has sold the new heroin , but she wants them to look for another drug dealer named Yngve Holm. But Kurt defy the boss's orders and go again and again to Malmo to try to unravel the case. Eventually he gets a hold of the person he suspected. He'll take some photos of him and shows them for their guddotters friend Emma who were drug dealers. She takes Kurt to a friend who claims to have seen the man. The man in the photo is called Heinrich Pasila. Wallander thinks one recognizes Pasila from an earlier murder of guddotterns mother, where the offender is found.