[4] Maja believes police have the wrong man and returns to Nerbygd to determine whether the perpetrator is a serial killer.
[1] Kautokeino resident Elle finds fellow villager Sofie's mobile phone by the side of the road.
After local police chief Johan arrests a suspect, Maja believes he is innocent as his past record is for violent but impulsive crimes; he would not have planned to kidnap a girl, take her to a caravan site, kill her, stage the body and leave the scene clean and tidy.
Initially dismissive of Maja's theories, having eventually extracted a 'confession' from the suspect, Nerbygd police consider the case closed.
From the files, Dan and Maja identify several "soft targets" – loner females with little family support – who disappeared in previous years with no substantial investigation.
When one such historical victim, Tina, is found dead, Johan's second-in-charge, Erik hesitantly assists Maja.
When, in the present, Maja displays increasing confusion over the killer's victims and her childhood traumas she is excluded from the investigations.