An investigative journalist is found murdered in his home, along with the fingerprints of a notorious criminal debt collector. The journalist had been threatened by right-wing extremists, but it is the victim's work with a book about 'society's dark side' that captures the interest of Beck and his team.

A paparazzi photographer is found dead, his apartment ransacked. When Beck's superior Margareta Oberg goes through the evidence, she reacts very strongly to two of the images left behind, going so far as to hide them from the team

An unidentified body is found in the remains of a trailer after a fire at a run-down caravan park. The owner of the trailer, a young drug-addicted woman, is missing, but is she really the victim? And what role has the local so-called neighbourhood watch played?

When the charred remains of a woman are found, Sapo, the Swedish Security Services, suspect Gunvald Larsson of being mixed up in her murder. The dead woman was wanted internationally as a member of a group of militant eco-activists carrying out attacks around the world.

Martin Beck gets a phone call from his German colleague Hans Sperling, who is in Stockholm for an art auction. Sperling was interested in a Japanese erotic painting but was outbid by a woman who was later found dead in his hotel, and he needs Beck's help

When traffic officers on a quiet morning shift try to stop a car for speeding they are shot at and one of them is killed. Beck and his team lead an extensive search for the ruthless killer.

Two girls are hit by a train and killed instantly. Was it murder or a double suicide? Martin Beck and his team must answer the question of whether the pressure and intimidation faced by these young women in their everyday lives led to their deaths.

A teenage girl is found by her parents brutally raped and murdered in the woods. It's now up to Beck and his team to catch the criminal.