Inspector Marie Brand is called one morning by her colleague Jürgen Simmel because he urgently needs her help: After spending a night with his new girlfriend Daniela, he found her dead in the hotel bed, and the evidence points to him as the perpetrator. Brand helps him to keep the matter a secret from her boss Engler, otherwise Simmel would not be allowed to participate in the case and thus not in the proof of his innocence. Obviously someone wants to accuse him of murder, and Simmel can only think of the businessman Grave, against whom he (unsuccessfully) investigated during his time in Rostock. He recently moved to Cologne and knows that Simmel still has his sights set on him.