What begins as a German family saga from the 1950s unfolds into a thriller involving both German states, centered around murder and terrorism. At the heart of the story is the conflict between Horst Ristau, a major in the East German State Security, and Bernhard Kluge, a criminal commissioner from the Lüneburg police. The two childhood friends, who lost touch early on, engage in a struggle from which only one can emerge victorious. Meticulously researched, with details unknown to most people about the era of divided Germany, along with detailed descriptions of real police work, this thriller is filled with information from the period between 1954 and 1989, making it a historical document about the relationship between East and West Germany.