A pot of half a million marks - donations for workers who want to prevent the closure of their factory by occupying the factory - disappears after a brutal robbery; and shortly afterwards one of them, the union official Broegger, is murdered. The atmosphere in Duisburg is heated, speculation is spreading. Schimanski knows that the case must be solved as quickly as possible. But now, of all times, his friend and colleague Thanner has left him; he has gone to Bonn, to a branch of the BKA.

A brutal serial rapist has plunged Ludwigshafen into a state of terror. Young Detective Lena Odenthal of the Vice Squad faces her first major case, focusing her investigation on three men with prior convictions. When one of the attacks ends fatally - and Lena unexpectedly takes charge of the Homicide Division - she decides to set a trap for the perpetrator, unaware that in doing so, she is putting her own life at risk…

When a policeman is killed, Schimanski's investigation gets personal.