The film starts with a figure running desperately towards a motorway bridge, with a factory belching smoke in the background, to a soundtrack of Mein Herz brennt by Rammstein. When the figure turns around the film introduces the audience to Lilja, who has recently been brutally beaten. The film reveals her past.
Oskar, a meek 12-year-old boy, resides with his mother Yvonne in the western Stockholm suburb of Blackeberg in 1981 and occasionally visits his father Erik in the countryside. It is not clear why Erik is living apart from Yvonne, but on one such visit, when Oskar and Erik are enjoying a cosy night playing games, a drunken neighbour arrives and Erik starts to drink heavily with him, breaking up the cosy father/son evening. Oskar collects clippings from newspapers and magazines about grisly murders and pictures of hunting knives. He keeps a knife under his mattress.
In December 2002, Mikael Blomkvist, publisher of Millennium magazine, loses a libel case involving allegations he published about billionaire financier Hans-Erik Wennerström. He is sentenced to three months in prison and a hefty fine. Lisbeth Salander, a brilliant but damaged surveillance agent and hacker, is hired by Henrik Vanger, the patriarch of the wealthy Vanger family, to investigate Blomkvist. Vanger then hires Blomkvist to investigate the disappearance of his niece, Harriet, who vanished on Children's Day in 1966. Vanger believes that Harriet was murdered by a family member.
Two emotionally estranged sisters, Ester (Ingrid Thulin) and Anna (Gunnel Lindblom), and Anna's son, Johan (Jörgen Lindström), a boy of 10, are on a night train journey back home. Ester, the older sister and a literary translator, is seriously ill. Anna coldly assists her, seemingly resenting the burden. They decide to interrupt the journey in the next town called "Timoka", settled in a fictitious Central European country with an incomprehensible language and on the brink of war.
Unsuccessful entrepreneur Percy Nilegård organizes a bus trip for lonely Swedish men to Estonia, where Nilegård's Estonian business partner Lembit Metsik has gathered Estonian women interested in meeting Swedish men. The group comprises a mixture of men from different parts of Sweden: Roland Järverup, a timid dansband fan from Karlskoga, the easy-going pick-up artists Micke and Slobodan from Skövde, who has grown tired of the local women, Magnus Ronell, a socially awkward and aggressive perpetual student, Lennart Sundström, an idealistic and outspoken sanitary worker who lives with his elderly mother in Vännäs, and several others. The bus is driven by Lasse Kongo, a severely alcoholic man with unintelligible speech.
Depuis le décès de sa femme et son licenciement, Ove se sent vieux et terriblement inutile. À longueur de journée, il erre dans sa maison comme une âme en peine. Pour s’occuper, il multiplie les rondes de sécurité dans sa copropriété et harcèle ses voisins pour le moindre manquement au règlement intérieur… À 59 ans, grincheux et dépressif, Ove n’attend plus qu’une seule chose de la vie : la mort ! Il décide donc d’en finir… mais ses tentatives de suicide échouent lamentablement. La situation se corse lorsque de nouveaux voisins emménagent, affreusement sympathiques : Parvaneh, une jeune Iranienne, son mari et leurs charmants enfants. Sans cesse importuné, Ove n’a plus un instant à lui pour se pendre tranquillement.
Erik Ponti, a 15-year-old boy, lives with his mother and sadistic stepfather in Stockholm. At home, his stepfather beats him every day after dinner. His docile mother ignores her husband's sadistic nature and allows the violence to proceed. At school, Erik is violent and frequently engages in fights, as a result of his violent upbringing. After a particularly vicious fight, Erik is expelled. The headmaster labels him vicious and accuses him of being pure evil. In an attempt to provide her son with a fresh start he sorely needs, his mother sells of some of her possessions and sends Erik to a boarding school.
The film takes place in Sweden around the turn of the twentieth century. Fredrik Egerman is a middle-aged lawyer married to a 19-year-old beauty, Anne. Their two-year marriage is still unconsummated, due to Anne's reluctance. Fredrik has a son, Henrik, from his marriage to his late first wife. Henrik is in his early twenties and is studying to be a minister but is currently tormented by his love for his step-mother, who secretly loves him in return. Henrik is distracting himself from his urges by attempting an inconclusive affair with Fredrik's lusty young servant, Petra.
Henrik Bergman is a student of theology who comes from a poor family. On the other hand, the family of his best friend Ernst Åkerblom is wealthy. Although Henrik is in a relationship with Frida, a waitress, he falls in love with Ernst's sister Anna Åkerblom. Anna's family doesn't consider him fit to join the family, so he stays with Frida. Some years later, Anna's father is deceased, Anna suffers from tuberculosis and Henrik has finished his studies. Now the wedding can take place. Anna follows her husband to a small village in the north of Sweden. Their different characters and his low income cause constant tensions between them. When he turns down a job offer for a prestigious position in Uppsala, the situation exacerbates.
The audience is introduced to Andreas Winkelman, a man living alone and emotionally desolate after the recent demise of his marriage. He meets Anna, who is grieving the recent deaths of her husband and son. She uses a cane as a result of the car crash that killed them. While Anna uses Andreas' phone, he listens to her conversation, after which she departs visibly distraught. Anna has left her handbag behind and Andreas searches it, finding and reading a letter from her husband that will later prove she is deceptive.
The action takes place in the years 1958-1959 in Sweden. Troubled 12-year-old Ingemar (Anton Glanzelius) gets into all sorts of trouble, which drives his mother (Anki Lidén) crazy; Ingemar does not know that his mother is in fact terminally ill. When he and his older brother become too much for her, they are split up and sent to live with relatives. Ingemar ends up with his maternal uncle Gunnar (von Brömssen) and his wife Ulla (Kicki Rundgren) in a small rural town in Småland. Gunnar and Ingemar bond over Povel Ramel's recording of "Far, jag kan inte få upp min kokosnöt".
En 1846, en Suède, la troupe de théâtre du « Docteur Vogler », spécialisée dans les tours de prestidigitation et la vente de philtres divers, arrive à Stockholm pour donner une représentation de magnétisme miraculeux. Arrêtés par la police, ils sont conduits dans la riche propriété du consul Abraham Egerman. Ottilia, la femme du consul est convaincue, comme son mari, que le " mage " pourra lui expliquer la mort de sa fille.
Merab (Levan Gelbakhiani) et sa partenaire Mary (Ana Javakishvili) se sont toujours entraînés dans l’Ensemble National Géorgien. Quand Irakli (Bachi Valishvili) arrive sous les yeux de Merab, il représente à la fois, pour lui, son rival et son désir…
A young woman is playing the piano at a wild party. When asked to play a special tune, she begins but stops abruptly and rushes out, visibly upset. Alone she starts to walk home through late night central Stockholm. Crossing a bridge, she has a conversation with a drunk artist, and after his persuasion, out of kindness, she buys a sketch that he offers. Arriving at her apartment, she straps a rope to the ceiling and hangs herself. The next morning her body is found by a housekeeper.
Le film traite de la façon dont la société de production de Gertten a été poursuivie en justice par Dole Food Company pour son documentaire de 2009, Bananas!*.