Mikael Blomkvist is a disgraced journalist who is asked by a wealthy industrialist to write a biography on his family. But what he really wants Blomkvist to do is to find out what happened to his niece, who went missing 40 years ago. At first Blomkvist isn't interested, until the man offers to help him clear his name. Blomkvist begins by talking to the man's relatives who were there when the girl went missing, but some of them are not forthcoming. Blomkvist eventually believes that her disappearance might have something to do with some serial killings that took place 20 years before she disappeared, so he asks for a research assistant. The industrialist's man suggests Lisbeth Salander, a talented hacker who does background checks for them and who even did one on Blomkvist. When he sees her report, he's impressed and asks her to work with him and she does. She's anti-social but is extremely efficient.