Middle-aged journalist Mikael Blomkvist, who publishes the magazine
Millennium in Stockholm, has lost a libel case involving damaging allegations about billionaire Swedish industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerström, and is sentenced to three months in prison. Facing jail
time and professional disgrace, Blomkvist steps down from his position on the magazine's board of directors, despite strong objections from Erika Berger, Blomkvist's longtime friend, occasional lover, and
business partner. At the same time, he is offered an unlikely freelance assignment by Henrik Vanger, the elderly former CEO of Vanger Enterprises. Blomkvist accepts the assignment — unaware that Vanger commissioned a comprehensive investigation into Blomkvist's personal
and professional history, carried out by gifted private investigator Lisbeth Salander.
Blomkvist visits Vanger at his estate on the tiny island of Hedeby,
several hours from Stockholm. The old man draws Blomkvist in by promising not only financial reward for the assignment, but also solid evidence that Wennerström is truly the scoundrel Blomkvist suspects
him to be. On this basis, Blomkvist agrees to spend a year writing the Vanger family history as a cover for the real assignment: solving the "cold case" 
of the disappearance of Vanger's great-niece Harriet some 40 years earlier. Vanger admits he is
obsessed with finding out the truth of what happened to Harriet, and expresses his suspicion that Harriet was murdered by a member of the vast Vanger family, many of whom were present in Hedeby
on the day of her disappearance. Each year on his birthday Harriet gave Henrik a present of pressed flowers. On his birthday every year since Harriet's murder, Vanger explains, the murderer torments him with a present of pressed flowers.
Blomkvist uproots himself from his life in Stockholm, moving to
Hedeby in the middle of one of the coldest winters on record, and begins the process of analysing the more than 40 years worth of information Henrik Vanger has obsessively compiled around the
circumstances of the day Harriet disappeared. Hedeby is home to several generations of Vangers, all part owners in Vanger Enterprises. Under the pretext of researching the family history, and
due to the small size of the island, Blomkvist soon becomes acquainted with the members of the extended Vanger family, most of him resent his presence, worried that he is taking advantage of the
obsession of a sick old man. The investigation of Harriet's disappearance approximates "the old Miss Marple closed-room scenario" with all the rich suspects marooned on the family estate on
an island, "a village we grow familiar with, full of hostile locals peering out from behind their curtains".
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Blomkvist fulfills his contractual obligations by immersing himself in the case. After discovering that Salander has hacked into his
computer, he persuades her to assist him with research. Ultimately the two discover that Harriet's brother Martin, now CEO of
Vanger Industries, has been raping and murdering women for years, having been "initiated" into serial murder by his father,
Gottfried, who also sexually abused him and Harriet. Blomkvist attempts to confront Martin, who kidnaps him and takes him to a
torture chamber hidden in Martin's house. While justifying his crimes to Blomkvist, Martin reveals that he is not responsible for
Harriet's disappearance and presumed murder. As Martin is about to kill Blomkvist, Lisbeth bursts in and attacks, rescuing him.
Martin escapes while Lisbeth frees Blomkvist, only to commit suicide by crashing his car into a truck on the highway.
Blomkvist and Lisbeth realize that Harriet was not actually murdered, but ran away to escape from her sadistic brother. Using
Lisbeth's hacking skills and contacts, they track her to Australia, where she runs a sheep farming company. Confronted, she
confirms their account of the case, but also reveals that she was actually responsible for the presumed accidental death of her
father. She returns to Sweden, where she is happily reunited with Vanger and begins to take a leading role in the newly leaderless family business.
Vanger's promises of evidence regarding Wennerström prove to have been mostly
a lure for Blomkvist and are not especially substantial. However, using her investigative skills, Lisbeth breaks into Wennerström's computer and discovers that his crimes go beyond even what Blomkvist was convicted of libel for printing.
Using the evidence she found, Blomkvist prints an exposé article and book which destroys Wennerström and catapults him and Millenium to national prominence.
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