Commissioner Nora Graf is the main character of the crime novel set in August 2016. She is transferred from Berlin back to her hometown of Schwerin as a punishment. On her first evening, while out for a walk, she discovers the body of an elderly woman in the Pfaffenteich. Days later, her keen sense of smell leads Nora to the corpse of a young man in an empty apartment. Is there a connection between the two murders? Or to the series of rapes that has kept the city on edge for months? Suddenly, a traumatic experience from Nora's childhood in Schwerin resurfaces. A classmate died. Was the woman from the Pfaffenteich a victim of delayed revenge? Nora reaches out to her former school friend Tamara and begins to settle into Schwerin. Nora cannot prevent another murder. She must overcome her fear of open water to save a life.