On a winter's day in 2008, a retired naval officer, Håkan von Enke, disappears during his daily walk in Lilljans forest. This becomes a personal matter of the highest importance for Kurt Wallander, as von Enke is the grandfather of Linda Wallander's daughter. Things escalate when von Enke's wife, Louise, also disappears just as mysteriously, and the investigation leads back to the Cold War, far-right extremist groups, and hitmen from the old Eastern Europe. Wallander suspects he has stumbled upon a major secret, potentially a far more serious affair than the Wennerström case, Sweden's worst spy scandal to date. As he is thrown into a developing situation he can barely grasp, a darker cloud appears on his own horizon