When our first episode starts Sebastian is on his way his hometown of Västerköping. He is in bad shape and has again regressed into womanizing since he feels he has nothing to live for. He has avoided his mothers funeral but has lately felt the need to confront the place of his childhood. Sebastian has come to realize that even if he seems able to gaze deep into other peoples secrets and motives he is unable to address his own issues. And he wants to. He is too smart not to realize he needs to save himself. The problem is that he doesn’t know how.
At first it seems that he will stay only a few days in Västerköping order to arrange for the sale of the house he has inherited but when he is going through his dead mother’s belongings Sebastian finds a bunch of letters that his mother has hidden. Sebastian starts reading them, deep inside hoping that her mother had an affair with somebody else than his father. But the secret is something much more close to heart. Turns out that the letters are from a young woman, who in the 1980´s looked for Sebastian when he had left for the USA. Apparently she was one of his students and she was writing in panic as she was pregnant with his child. The letters are signed with the name Petra Andersson. Sebastian is in shock. Of this he has no knowledge. Does he have a child? Does he suddenly have a real reason to live? And who is this Petra Andersson? Sebastian’s life has suddenly jumpstarted.
Meanwhile there has been a brutal murder of a 15 year old boy in Västerköping and the police investigation is led by Torkel Höglund – his old colleague from long time ago. Torkel is now head of the special investigating unit of Rikskrim- a unit that gets called in from Stockholm to help solve complicated violent crimes. Sebastian realizes that the best way to get information about Petra Andersson is by getting back on the team and use the police computers. He manages to convince Torkel to help him and is team with the ongoing investigation.
Onboard Sebastian starts enjoying a sense of focus again in his life, he has really missed this work, but for Torkel Sebastian means only trouble. His team is seriously questioning him and as Sebastian is unorthodox and a brutal speaker of truths things doesn’t get easier for Torkel..
The story about the dead schoolboy unfolds and Sebastian finds out that the boy was bullied by the other boys, especially the 16 year old the police sees as the prime suspect. But Sebastian suspects the crime was committed by a more mature and advanced killer and he suddenly finds leads towards the murdered boy´s headmaster, a position he keeps at the school founded by Sebastian´s father. After the headmaster kills himself the evidence against him leads the police to consider the case solved.
But Sebastian starts doubting this solution as he finds it to neat, to perfect. There is something more to this case he feels. And he has still gotten no information about Petra Andersson. He decides to push on and discovers new leads in the direction towards the dead boy’s teacher, Beatrice. It turns out that they had an affair – a 39 year old women and the schoolboy.
As the story turns even more tragic Sebastian and the team in a dramatic shootout discovers that the killer is actually Beatrice son Johan, a quiet shy boy of 15, who found out about the affair and confronted the dead boy. Their meeting goes tragically wrong and Johan by mistake kills the boy. The story is sad and poignant and Torkel has to admit that without Sebastian’s help the police would have closed the case too early. Vanja is still not impressed and she and Sebastian have a major confrontation about him and his person. Sebastian promises that she will never see him again.
Sebastian manages to locate Petra Andersson. In an apartment building in Stockholm he meets her, she wants nothing to do with him. He tells her that he just wants to know about his own child, but the mother replies he has no child, he is a little late for that.. Her daughter has no idea of who Sebastian is and thinks that Lena’s spouse is her father. Lena begs Sebastian not to destroy her life. Lena closes the door on him. On the way down the stairs Sebastian meets Vanja! She is absolutely perplexed. Is he following her? What’s wrong with him? She storms away. Sebastian stands in the stairway listening. With trepidation he realizes that Vanja casually opens the door the Petra’s apartment. Before the door closes he hears the words; “mom”. Then it’s quiet.
Sebastian stands there quietly. He has found his daughter. And can never tell her.
