It was supposed to look like a suicide: in the middle of the night, Werner Holtkamp was thrown off a bridge and hit by a truck. But by then the divorced man in his mid-forties was already dead. He had been beaten to death in his own bed at home. The traces secured are clear. His wife left him years ago for another man and took their daughter with her. Since then he has lived alone and withdrawn in the suburban settlement near Cologne. With hisHowever, he got into a bitter argument with neighbor Leo Voigt. A court had ruled that the boundary between their two properties had not been properly drawn. Holtkamp used his newly won area to plant cypresses - and in doing so only further alienated Leo Voigt. Max Ballauf and Freddy Schenk soon discover other connections in the neighborhood that the residents want to keep secret with all their might.