Simon Lindström, the popular coach of a suburban junior hockey team is found stabbed to death. Does the murder have something to do with his side project: teaching unaccompanied refugee children to ice skate? This undertaking has certainly not been appreciated by everyone in their small, sheltered community. Martin Beck, who has returned in a more senior position, struggles to find a replacement for the temporary head of the group, Steinar Hovland. But the Norwegian is becoming more and more interested in keeping his new role. The question is whether Martin can trust him?

An investigative journalist is found beaten to death in his home, where the fingerprints of a notorious criminal debt collector are also found. The murdered journalist has been threatened by right wing extremists, but it is the victim’s work with a book about “society’s dark side” that captures the Beck group’s interest. When the case takes an unexpected and terrible turn, there is suddenly much more at stake than finding the journalist’s killer. Martin Beck and his colleagues have never had to protect the balance of their professional and private lives with the same tenacity as they do now.

The body of a young woman is found in a Stockholm hotel room. It appears that she has been strangled after a night partying with two young men, but the room was paid for using the credit card of a mugging victim whose alibi doesn't add up. Martin and Gunvald investigate under the supervision of their new boss Klas Freden.