Police detective Sarah Lund investigates difficult cases with personal and political consequences.

A young girl's brutal murder launches an extended police investigation just when Detective Sarah Lund is supposed to leave for a new life in Sweden, and she can't leave the case behind. The girl's parents and friends struggle to cope with their loss. Troels Hartmann is campaigning to be mayor of Copenhagen, but struggles when links are revealed between City Hall and the murder. Over a 20-day time-span, suspect upon suspect is sought out as violence and political pressures cast their shadows over the hunt for the killer. Two more seasons follow, about a series of killings of soldiers and the abduction of an industrial magnate's daughter.—Peter Brandt Nielsen

Sarah Lund is a detective in the Copenhagen police. Her personal life is a bit messy; she's a bit of a loner and not exactly a team player, but as a crime investigator she's brilliant. She'll need to be with the cases she handles. In Season 1, a teenage girl is brutally murdered. In Season 2, someone starts killing off people involved with a Danish Army incident in Afghanistan. In Season 3, three seamen are murdered and a shipping magnate's daughter is kidnapped.—grantss