It's the middle of November, but the dead man found in a gravel pit is dressed lightly for summer. Lena Odenthal and Mario Kopper have no clues as to the identity of the dead man. More than a note with an address in Ludwigshafen is not found on the man. But the research in the residential area is fruitless, nobody has ever seen the dead man. But nobody seems to care either - in this neighborhood, where many stranded people live, people are too busy with their own problems to react to dead strangers. Only the girl Leyla, a twelve-year-old Kurd, reacts with concern. Her big brother Mehmet, with whom she came to Germany, left and hasn't come back yet. Leyla is relieved that the dead man is not Mehmet.
Lena and Kopper wonder if the girl would be in better hands with the youth emergency service, but Leyla continues to believe in her brother's promise to be back soon and to bring money with her. And the settlement's social worker, Peter Marler, also calms Lena Odenthal down. He keeps an eye on Leyla, police support is not necessary. But the investigations soon lead Lena back to Leyla. There is a piece of fabric in the dead man's shoes that Lena recognizes: Leyla's doll's dress is made of the same material. So the man has something to do with the settlement and with Leyla after all. Lena doesn't just want to leave the closed girl to her own devices anyway. In fact, Leyla thaws a bit when she visits the zoo.
But with a lot of temper she refuses to reveal how she came to the material. Or what her brother is doing, who actually shouldn't have left town. She also maintains that she and Mehmet flew to Germany via Lebanon, although Lena and Kopper are increasingly convinced that Leyla, like the dead man from the gravel pit, was smuggled into the country illegally. It's not the only illegal act they notice in the settlement. They often meet people who have just had an operation without anyone knowing that they are ill. The doctors here only see these patients when complications arise.
Several kidney surgeries on foreigners who don't want to talk about it, allow only one conclusion: Lena and Kopper are on the trail of organ dealers who are taking advantage of the illegal immigrants' plight. Lena is sure that none of this will happen without the knowledge of the social worker Peter Marler. But he protests his innocence. While Leyla dutifully goes to the doctor Maria, as Peter instructed her, Lena realizes that the girl is in danger.