Reporter Brigitte Burkhard is abducted on the open street in Dresden. Her kidnapper, who hides his face behind a mask, sends a video message to the police. Inspectors Karin Gorniak, Leonie Winkler and their boss Peter Michael Schnabel are confronted with the claim that 150 children kidnapped in Saxony are being held captive in a Dresden cellar. If they are not freed within 24 hours, Brigitte Burkhard must die. The police are feverishly looking for the alleged hiding place for the children, and a special task force storms a possible restaurant. But there are no traces of a crime here. The detectives can not find the kidnapped journalist either. Schnabel sees no other way than to go public.
The next morning, Schnabel himself is in the hands of the perpetrator. Gorniak and Winkler are able to clarify his identity: Michael Sobotta has been desperately missing his daughter Zoe, who disappeared on a school trip, for years. While Gorniak and Winkler are trying at full speed to determine Schnabel's whereabouts, the kidnapper, deep in the swamp of confused conspiracy fantasies, gives the inspectors another absurd ultimatum: Gorniak and Winkler can only save their boss's life if they dig up the child molester ring...