Oskar Lindt, the chief investigator of the Karlsruhe homicide squad, who has broadened under the weight of the years, is increasingly struggling with his profession. Past cases haunt him in nightmares, colleagues from other departments bully him and put him under pressure. But it gets worse: when the branch manager of a bedding store is brutally murdered and Lindt roughly overpowers a suspect, he is charged with bodily harm, a case that is delightfully initiated against him by his arch-nemesis, Chief Prosecutor Lea Frey. A first lead points to the milieu of extremely profitable cigarette smuggling. However, the investigation is sluggish, and when a second murder occurs, the success-driven commissioner from the city of fans finds himself in a full-blown crisis.