Eleven year old Johannes is found dead in a crevice. The postmortem shows that the boy has been sexually abused and beaten to death. Detective Stefan Lindman is a member of the same shooting club as the victim's father and they are also friends. Therefore he becomes the one that has to tell the father what has happened to his son (Johannes). When the father finally understands what has happened he demands that Stefan personally gets the one responsible. Stefan is since a previous case being accused for abuse, because the internal investigation Stefan has to go on paid vacation, and he is not allowed to continue his investigation. But because of personal issues he continues the investigation anyway. He has a dark secret, a secret that has the answer to why he came to Ystad in the first place.
