While covering the annual Nobel Banquet for tabloid Kvällspressen, crime reporter Annika Bengtzon witnesses a spectacular murder right in front of her. Two people are shot, one of them the controversial Laureate in Medicine, Aaron Wiesel. Annika is the key witness and is bound by the police not to disclose anything she has seen. A terrorist group with connections to the Middle East quickly admits responsibility for the murder. International press is all over the story, as are the police.

Two Swedish business men are kidnapped in Rome by the Mob, and moved to Sicily. Carl Hamilton is sent to Sicily on direct order from the Swedish Government. He is sent to negotiate for their release. Hamiltons partner and best friend, Lundwall, is murdered by the Mob. Hamilton is dragged into a bitter and brutal vendetta between himself and the Mob-leader Don Tommaso.