On the outskirts of Bern, lawyer Schild is having dinner. Just as his wife goes into the kitchen, someone enters the house from the garden, shoots him, and disappears again. His current client was a financial fraudster who had fled to Lipari and whom he was supposed to defend. Former police officer Alexander Bergmann is making ends meet with snooping jobs and dreams of a big assignment. Now, he receives a task from Schild's boss to find his murderer or, at the very least, gather as many clues and pieces of evidence as possible. Since she specializes in dismantling charges to exonerate the guilty, she fears that it might not be enough for a conviction in the case of her employee's murderer either. Bergmann initially declines - until she dangles a larger sum of money in front of him. Always slightly overwhelmed, he begins to investigate.