This drama follows Inspector Kurt Wallander – a middle-aged everyman – as he struggles against a rising tide of violence in the apparently sleepy backwaters in and around Ystad in Skane, southern Sweden. Based on the international best-selling books by Henning Mankell.

Wallander is a Swedish television series adapted from Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander novels and starring Krister Henriksson in the title role. The 1st series of 13 films was produced in 2005 and 2006, with one taken directly from a novel and the remainder with new storylines suggested by Mankell. The 2nd series of 13 films was shown between 2009 and 2010. The stories are set in Ystad near the southern tip of Sweden.The three films Before the Frost, Mastermind, and The Secret were premiered in cinemas, with the rest first released as direct-to-DVD movies. The first episode of the second series, Hämnden, was released in Swedish cinemas in January 2009; the rest of the series was made for television.The BBC aired all 26 episodes of the Swedish television versions on BBC Four.A third and final season, containing six 90 minute episodes, will air in 2013 with Charlotta Jonsson as Linda Wallander. The first episode, adapted from the novel The Troubled Man, was released in cinemas in January 2013.

The seemingly random murder of a jogger in woodland and the detonation of car bombs in central Ystad are but diversions to busy the police whilst a security van are robbed of 15 million kroner. Isabelle and Portus witness this and give chase but are attacked by the criminals and hospitalized. Given the security firm's meticulous contingency plan Wallander suspects a leak from the inside and aims for Micke Sterner, a compulsive gambler and the only staff member to know the encoded transit schedules. But some private sleuthing by over-worked Svartman, who has found the robbers' den, and Wallander's suspicions of an ex-cop turned security officer with connections to the firm provide the real break-through.

When a small-time crook is killed by a sniper, Wallander and the Ystad police investigate. Meanwhile, trainee policeman Pontus is forced to reconsider his career.

When Manfred Stjarne is stabbed to death outside the Brada cider factory his wife Claire has inherited - suspicion falls on Polish worker Jan Kowalski, with whose wife Manfred was having an affair, but Jan is found hanged - later evidence suggesting foul play. Benjamin Wilkes, an ex-psychologist who helped Manfred select redundancy candidates, is killed in the same way as Manfred, putting disgruntled ex-Brada employees in the frame, but a third slaying implicates a former patient of Wilkes, who has connections to the Stjarne family. A newly loved-up Isabelle and Pontius start to fool around whilst on surveillance, taking their eye off the ball and allowing this suspect to confront Claire.