The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)

In December 2002, journalist Mikael Blomkvist, publisher of independent magazine Millennium, loses a libel case involving unproven allegations that he published about billionaire financier Hans-Erik Wennerström, and is sentenced to three months in prison. Lisbeth Salander, a freelance surveillance agent and hacker, is hired by Henrik Vanger, the patriarch of the wealthy Vanger family, to conduct a background check on 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. Henrik explains that his brothers — Richard, Gottfried and Harald — are supporters of the Nazi regime. As Richard died in 1940, he is not a suspect. Her father, Gottfried, who is described as a heavy drinker, womanizer and wife beater, accidentally drowned in a lake a year prior to Harriet’s disappearance, so he isn’t a suspect either.

After his death, since Harriet’s mother seemed incapable of/uninterested in taking care of her children (Harriet and her older brother Martin) Henrik took responsibility for raising the two of them. Harald is a recluse who still clings to his strong Nazi views and is a suspect for the murder, as is Harriet’s mother and all the other family members who were present on that day. Henrik also shows Blomkvist a room whose walls are covered with pressed flowers. The first ones were gifts from Harriet, and since her disappearance, a flower has arrived each year from different places around the world. Henrik believes that Harriet’s killer is sending them to taunt him.