Chief Inspector Andreas Keppler, who has just landed at Leipzig Airport, is called directly to a crime scene by his colleague Eva Saalfeld. A young Afghan was burned to death in a meadow early in the morning. The inspectors learn from the identity papers that it is Arian Bakhtari, who studied high-frequency physics at the University of Leipzig. When they see that the hall of a German-Afghan friendship association has burned down nearby, they start investigating there as well. The inspectors find out that the dead man worked for the hall's lessor, the freight forwarder Norbert Müller, not long ago. He was fired for tampering with the cargo that Müller is transporting to German facilities in Afghanistan via Leipzig Airport.
The commissioners wonder if Arian set the hall on fire to get revenge on Mueller, accidentally killing himself in the process. Müller's daughter Mette also had contact with the dead Arian. He helped her illegally smuggle her Afghan friend Deniz Ghubar to Germany. Mette is desperately looking for Deniz, who has disappeared since the fire. In the burned-down hall, the inspectors come across the remains of a large hash racket. The trail leads the detectives to the burnt man's aunt, Jamila Nazemi, who denies having known anything about this camp. When detectives discover the shell of a flare in Arian's dorm, the case takes on a new dimension.