When Kurt Wallander investigates the disappearance of a bird-watcher, he discovers a terrible and microscopic planned murder - a body impaled in a trap of sharpened bamboo stakes. When another man is reported missing, Wallander is forced to work tirelessly to find a connection between several vicious murders, and eventually he realizes that he seems to be a serial killer on the trail. Meanwhile, Wallander is frightening near one of the main suspects in the case.