警察探长奈曼被人谋杀在医院的床上,马丁贝克和他的伙伴又有了新的一起谋杀事件需要解决。他们发现奈曼是一个很严厉的警察,他办事的手法常被投诉。奈曼的伙伴亨特极力维护他的声誉,但同时,奈曼的遗孀却说亨特是除开家人之外唯一一个知道奈曼医院的人。贝克逐渐发现有很多人都想致奈曼于死地,但他却不是唯一的目标。很快,一个狙击手从斯德哥尔摩城中心的楼顶上开枪,开始扫射警察们。(豆瓣电影字幕翻译2.0小组)Police lieutenant Nyman is murdered in his hospital bed and Martin Beck and his colleagues have another murder to solve. They discover that Nyman was a very tough policeman who received several complaints about his methods. His partner Hult defends him against these accusations, while Nyman's widow explains that Hult was the only one outside of the family who knew where Nyman was hospitalized. It becomes obvious to Beck, that a lot of people wanted Nyman dead, but he is not the only one targeted. Soon a sniper kills policemen from a roof in central Stockholm.