Jingle bells on the Kiel Fjord: while Commissioner Borowski and his colleague Sarah Brandt are celebrating Julklapp in the Presidium, a murderer is preparing a dark crime in neighboring Schleswig. At the Lucia Festival parade at a Danish school, a man suddenly caught fire. Kriminalrat Schladitz, who spent his childhood in this place, becomes an involuntary witness to the brutal attack. The dead man, Michael Eckart, was the headmaster here and is a member of the Danish minority. At first everything indicates that the murderer can be found in the immediate vicinity of the dead man. But then Commissioner Klaus Borowski discovers a secret that goes back to the post-war history of Schleswig-Holstein.
In their investigations, the Kiel inspectors receive administrative assistance from the highly motivated South Schleswig inspector Einigsen, who is investigating her first murder case with great vigour. Then events unfold. Kriminalrat Schladitz suffers a car accident, apparently he knows more about the identity of the dead man than he told his friend and colleague Klaus Borowski. And Sarah Brandt did not let Borowski in on the investigation into the burning man either. Who else can Commissioner Borowski trust?