Detective Inspector for homicide Sarah Lund is contacted by old flame Mathias Borch from National Intelligence. Borch fears that what first appeared to be a random killing at the docks is the beginning of an assassination attempt on Prime Minister Troels Hartmann. The murder draws attention towards the shipping and oil giant Zeeland, run by billionaire Robert Zeuthen. When Zeuthen's nine-year-old daughter Emilie is kidnapped, the investigation takes on a different dimension as it soon becomes clear that her disappearance is linked to the murder of a young girl in Jutland some years earlier.