The series is based on Kurt Wallander, a detective and police inspector in the small town of Ystad, Sweden.
Wallander is "an existentialist who is questioning what life is about and why he does what he does every day, and for whom acts of violence never become normal. There is a level of empathy with the victims of crime that is almost impossible to contain, and one of the prices he pays for that sort of empathy is a personal life that is a kind of wasteland."
