The film begins at the conclusion of The Girl Who Played with Fire (film). Computer hacker Lisbeth Salander is airlifted to a hospital in Gothenburg, to recover from gunshot wounds inflicted by her father, crime boss Alexander Zalachenko. Journalist Mikael Blomkvist, who Salander helped on a previous case, resumes his efforts to clear her of several murder charges, knowing that she was framed by the "Section," a group within the Swedish Security Service that illegally sheltered Zalachenko after he defected from the Soviet Union.