While covering the annual Nobel Banquet for tabloid Kvällspressen, crime reporter Annika Bengtzon witnesses a spectacular murder right in front of her. Two people are shot, one of them the controversial Laureate in Medicine, Aaron Wiesel. Annika is the key witness and is bound by the police not to disclose anything she has seen. A terrorist group with connections to the Middle East quickly admits responsibility for the murder. International press is all over the story, as are the police.

Stockholm East is the love story between two strangers, bound together by a tragedy that has taken its toll on both their lives and relationships. When Johan and Anna meet at the railway station connecting Stockholm with the idyllic suburbs where they both live, they embark on a dangerous journey of passion and lies.