On a cold winter’s day, a pre-school teacher is shot to death in front of parents and children at the Jewish Congregation in Stockholm. Just a few hours later, two Jewish boys go missing on their way to tennis practice, and an unexpected blizzard destroys any trace of the perpetrator. As investigative analyst Fredrika Bergman and police superintendent Alex Recht struggle to pin down a lead, someone or something called the Paper Boy --- a mysterious old Israeli legend of a nighttime killer --- keeps popping up in the police investigation. But who was the Paper Boy really? And how could he have resurfaced in Stockholm?

Shortly after a crowded New York-bound Boeing 747 takes off from Stockholm, a bomb threat is found in one of the aircraft’s lavatories. Police superintendent Alex Recht teams up with the energetic and often abrasive Eden Lundell from the security service’s counterterrorism unit to deal with the hijacking. Fredrika Bergman, who is currently working at the Justice Department, returns to the police force to act as a liaison between the government and the police. The investigation team soon realizes that the plot behind the hijacking is far more complex than they initially thought.

Missing student Rebecca Trolle is found carved up and buried in a forest glade in a Stockholm suburb. While Fredrika Bergman and her team try to find out why Rebecca met such a violent demise, more bodies are found in the same area. Fredrika is inevitably drawn into the case, but it becomes much more complicated when her lover’s name is mentioned in the investigation.

A teenage girl was assaulted and raped on a midsummer’s eve 15 years ago. Cut to present: a man is killed in a hit and run. He has no identification on him and is not reported missing. The same day, a priest and his wife are found dead in an apparent suicide. Fredrika Bergman and her colleagues are assigned to all three of the seemingly unrelated cases. What is the thread of evil that connects them all?

In the middle of a rainy Swedish summer, a little girl is abducted from a crowded train. Inspector Alex Recht and his special team of federal investigators are assigned to what at first appears to be a classic custody fight. But when the child is found dead with the word “unwanted” scribbled on her forehead, the case soon turns into the investigation team’s worst nightmare.