In Stockholm on St. Lucy's feast day a bandit daringly robs a crowded post office. Within a fortnight two witnesses are dead. Two cops from vice squad Johansson and Jarnebring who were the first to the crime scene pursue all leads and identify a suspect an arrogant member of the elite secret police a man assigned to guard the country's Minister of Justice. Just as the beat cops think they've tightened the noose around the suspect loose ends appear witnesses lose their certainty alibis crop up and even the cops doubt what they've seen. Who's protecting the suspect and why?